BC Wheelchair Sports Return to Sport Update - November 13, 2020

BC Wheelchair Sports Return to Sport Update – November 13, 2020
massive-dev | November 13, 2020

BC Wheelchair Sports Return to Sport Update – November 12, 2020

To our community and membership,

BC Wheelchair Sports continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation in BC and follow all public health orders.

As per the most recent public health orders released on Saturday, November 7, there are now increased restrictions on social gatherings and indoor sports in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health Regions. These restrictions affect gatherings, group physical activities and travel. To read the full order, click here.

We have to make some changes to all our programs in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, based upon further clarifications to the Provincial Health Order released by the Province and viaSport BC.

The order states that: “No person may travel to or from the affected area or between the regions of the Fraser Health Authority and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority for any sport-related activity, including practice, training, games or tournaments unless they are an identified by Canadian Sports Institute Pacific as a high-performance athlete affiliated with an accredited provincial or national sports organization and are already training in the affected area and subject to the safety guidelines of their provincial sports organization.”

This means that no athlete may attend a sport program outside of the health authority in which they live. As an example, an athlete from Surrey is not permitted to travel to Richmond for practice and vice versa.

There are also restrictions around indoor sports in which physical distancing can’t be maintained which we were detailed in Monday’s update. The order states: “No person or municipality may provide or host and no person may participate in an indoor sport unless the sport involves no physical contact between the participants.”

Due to this order, we have temporarily moved wheelchair rugby in the Lower Mainland back to Level 2 of our Return to Sport Plan and suspended the Vancouver Wheelchair Rugby Program. Our Athletics and Tennis Programs remain in Level 3 as physical distancing between attendees can still be maintained.

BCWSA encourages all of our community to read and follow all public health orders around social interactions, gatherings, group physical activities and travel.

We will continue to provide updates on our Return to Sport Plan on our website, across our social media channels and in our newsletter. We appreciate all of the support and patience we’ve received from the community as we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on sport.

What these changes mean for your sport

Athletics

Wheelchair Racing and Seated Throws remain in Level 3 of our Return to Sport Plan
Athletes may not travel to, from or between the Vancouver Coastal and/or Fraser Health regions for sport-related activities unless they are a CSI Pacific targeted athlete.
To find your health region, click here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/data/geographic/land-use/administrative-boundaries/health-boundaries/map_wall_health_boundaries.pdf
The Wheelchair Athletics program at the Richmond Olympic Oval continues to operate.

Tennis

Wheelchair Tennis remains in Level 3 of our Return to Sport Plan
Athletes may not travel to, from, or between the Vancouver Coast and/or Fraser Health regions for sport-related activities unless they are a CSI Pacific targeted athlete.
To find your health region, click here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/data/geographic/land-use/administrative-boundaries/health-boundaries/map_wall_health_boundaries.pdf
Our Richmond Wheelchair Tennis Program at YY Tennis Club continues to operate.
Great West Fitness and Tennis has made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend all group tennis programs /including the Jr. Wheelchair Tennis Program.

Rugby

In the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health regions, Wheelchair Rugby is back to Level 2 of our Return to Sport Plan.
All others regions remain in Level 3 and can continue working towards a resumption of training and programming
Athletes may not travel to, from, or between the Vancouver Coast and/or Fraser Health regions for sport-related activities unless they are a CSI Pacific targeted athlete.
To find your health region, click here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/data/geographic/land-use/administrative-boundaries/health-boundaries/map_wall_health_boundaries.pdf