The Australian Gliders and Rollers teams have been selected ahead of the Mitsubishi Electric World Challenge Cup tournament to be held in Tokyo, Japan from August 29th to 1st September.
Four nations will compete on the men’s side of the tournament in Tokyo, including host team Japan. Iran who placed 4th at the World Championships and Korea. In the women’s tournament, our Australian Gliders will have a five-game series taking on host nation Japan.
These games will provide important preparation for both teams, leading into the Asia Oceania Zone (AOZ) qualifying tournament for Tokyo 2020 to be held in Pattaya, Thailand later this year (27 November – 8 December).
Rollers head coach Craig Friday has been focused on developing flexibility with new line-ups as well as fitness, speed and agility of the entire squad, with these attributes’ paramount to their style of play.
The Gliders team being led by Interim head coach Stephen Charlton, will have a great opportunity to test themselves following a tough home series over a very strong USA group. This five-game series taking on Japan will provide the Aussie women with a clear understanding of key areas of improvement heading in to the AOZ championships at the end of the year.
Rollers Men Coach Craig Friday has added some thoughts;
“This is our first time together for a few international games since the 2018 World Champs in Germany and with only 12 months to go our Paralympic campaign really starts to ramp up. We have a couple of new faces in the group in Jay Dohnt (Adelaide) and Clarence McCarthy-Grogan (Sydney) from the World Championships team, which will allow us to look at some more combinations on the court.”
“We have been working on adding depth to our group and this tournament allows us to get some quality international games under our belt as we close in on the AOZ Qualifying Tournament. This is great preparation for us as we will get to play the games in one of the Paralympic competition venues for Tokyo 2020.”
Gliders Women Coach Stephen Charlton leading his first senior team International tournament provided a few thoughts on this group and the upcoming tournament;
“This is another great opportunity for the Gliders to get together and play against world class opposition. We’ll be hoping to continue to build on what we learned in our tough home series against the USA in June of this year and continue to develop our younger players in the group with what the international game demands.”
“This Japan team have been together for several years now and with the Paralympics being in Tokyo next year they have been in intensive training. This is going to be another tough series, but one that we’re all looking forward to as we continue to build up to the Tokyo 2020 qualifiers in November.”
Mitsubishi Electric World Challenge Cup games commence;
Thursday 29th August and finals games take place on Sunday 1st September.
The Australian Rollers & Gliders teams for Tokyo 2019;
| PLAYER | NWBL Club / Institute | Class |
| Clarence McCarthy-Grogan | Sydney Metro Blue Hornets / NSWIS | 4.0 |
| Jay Dohnt | West Adelaide Thunder / SASI | 2.0 |
| Samuel White | West Adelaide Thunder / SASI | 1.0 |
| Shaun Norris | Perth Wheelcats / WAIS | 3.0 |
| Kim Robins | Perth Wheelcats / WAIS | 3.0 |
| Tristan Knowles | Kilsyth Cobras | 4.0 |
| Jannik Blair | Red Dust Heelers / WAIS | 1.0 |
| Tom O’Neill-Thorne | Brisbane Spinning Bullets / QAS | 3.0 |
| Matthew McShane | Brisbane Spinning Bullets / QAS | 1.5 |
| Luke Pople | Wollongong Rollerhawks / NSWIS | 2.5 |
| Brett Stibners | Wollongong Rollerhawks / NSWIS | 4.0 |
| Michael Auprince | Perth Wheelcats / NSWIS | 4.0 |
| STAFF | ||
| Craig Friday | Head Coach | WA |
| Brad Ness | Assistant Coach | WA |
| Shane Furness | Assistant / Technical Coach | VIC |
| Priyanka Karunakaran | Team Manager | VIC |
| Jesse Adams | Physiotherapist | SA |
| PLAYER | WNWBL Club / Institute | Class |
| Sarah Vinci | Perth Wheelcats / WAIS | 1.0 |
| Ella Sabljak | Queensland Comets / QAS | 1.0 |
| Taishar Ovens | Red Dust Lady Heelers / WAIS | 1.0 |
| Isabel Martin | Kilsyth Cobras | 1.0 |
| Georgia Inglis | Perth Wheelcats / WAIS | 2.5 |
| Shelley Cronau | Queensland Comets / QAS | 2.5 |
| Maryanne Latu | Sydney Metro Blue Hornets / NSWIS | 2.5 |
| Bree Mellberg | Kilsyth Cobras | 3.0 |
| Amber Merritt | Perth Wheelcats / WAIS | 4.5 |
| Georgia Munro Cook | Sydney Metro Blue Hornets / NSWIS | 4.5 |
| Annabelle Lindsay | Sydney University Flames / ACTAS | 4.5 |
| Teisha Shadwell | Kilsyth Cobras | 4.5 |
| STAFF | ||
| Stephen Charlton | Head Coach | WA |
| Murray Treseder | Assistant Coach | WA |
| Craig Campbell | Assistant / Technical Coach | VIC |
| Cathy Lambert | Team Manager | SA |
| Chloe Manuel | Physiotherapist | VIC |
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