Sports activities for disabled people

On Saturday, May 21, 2011 for the first time in Italy, the first international minibasket wheelchair tournament took place in Florence under the patronage and auspices of the Italian Paraolympic Committee. The wheelchair sports association of Florence was able to give an international character to the fourth edition of the Pegasus tournament thanks to the participation from the Bilbao, Spain minibasket society. The event started on Friday 20 May with the arrival of the Spanish team greeted in the morning at the City Hall by city councilman Massimo Fratini representing the Mayor. The group was then escorted on a visit to the City Hall Palace (Palazzo Vecchio) and participated in a historical review of the medieval period led by Isabella D'Aragona in medieval clothes speaking in Spanish of the vicissitudes of time and their current situation, all in the beautiful hall of the globe "sala del mappamondo". The logistical difficulties of moving a team of children and teenagers in wheelchairs had probably always limited the tournament to take place in Italy, but the Florentine association and accessibleitaly.com by Regency with its professionalism and tenacity helped it succeed. The FIRST INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT OF WHEELCHAIR MINIBASKET, PEGASO, saw 4 teams compete: Vicenza: the "Dolphins", Florence: the"Red Foxes", Parma and Bilbao - Spain. The games began at the gym that hosted the event, the "Palacoverciano". The wheelchair minibasket has players aged 6 to 18 years old and has rules very similar to the Olympic sport of wheelchair basketball. The tournament brought together about 100 people, including athletes, coaches and assistants in a unique sporting event in Italy. Florence starts at 9.00 am against Bilbao and immediately everyone understood that the Spanish team came to win. The final score shows the Bilbao team with a clear win. The other game ends in victory for the Vicenza Dolphins so they will compete for first place with the Spanish team. After a lunch shared with all groups present at the event, they were back in the gym at 4pm to start the game for 3rd and 4th place between Florence and Parma, won by the team from Emilia Romagna. All the games recorded a large number of spectators and the Final in front of a sold-out crowd promised to be a great match up. The Final game was applauded by City Councilman Pierguidi and Deputy Mayor Nardella who was there not only to watch the game but also for the awards ceremony at the end of the event. After an initial dominance by Bilbao, Vicenza won the Final with score of 68 to 60. The award ceremony took place at about 7pm and in addition to awards given to the participating teams there were awards given to the best player, the youngest player and the leading scorer. Deputy Mayor Nardella and city councilman, as well as municipal councilor for Sports Pierguidi led the awards ceremony to the applause of the crowd and with the emotions of the boys who realized that they had participated in something extraordinary.