Gold for NSW at 2017 Australian Goalball Championships

NSW Goalball travelled to Melbourne last week to compete in the Men's, Women's, Mixed Youth (under 19's) and Mixed Juniors (under 15's) Australian Championships.

NSW were the defending champions in Women's and Mixed Youth but in the five year history of the Mixed Junior competition NSW had won silver on four occasions.

The tournament was held at Collingwood College and the NSW Mixed Junior team dominated the competition. They defeated WA, SA and QLD convincingly, automatically qualifying for the gold medal game after the pool stage, winning each game by six or more goals.

In the gold medal game NSW ran out to a 9-2 lead and eventually defeated QLD 12-5 to go through undefeated and win the state's first National Championship in the Mixed Juniors division.

Head Coach, and Sport NSW Disability Inclusion Promotion Officer, Murray Elbourn praised the team that had three players in the All Star team, being Molly Smith, Tyson O'Neil & Ethan Scaturchio who are all on Variety NSW - The Children's Charity scholarships. Molly and Tyson along with Kendra Brewer all train in the Hunter under Simon Smith. Ethan and fellow Central Coast HUB player Makayla Reilly were joined by team Captain MiKayla Kumar from Penrith on the gold medal team.

In the other divisions NSW finished runner's up in Women's, third in Mixed Youth and fourth in the Men's Division.