Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium could hold Paralympic Games tomorrow, said International Goalball Committee chairman James Leask on Friday during his visit to the 2007 International Goalball Tournament, which is this year's only test event for the Beijing Paralympic Games.
"Your country has been doing the promotion campaign that 'we are ready' that's the theme I will tell you," the IBSA official told Xinhua. "We can host the Paralympics Games in that facilities tomorrow if we had to. They are so well prepared."
Leask, also a senior official with the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA), said the Gymnasium is the best goalball stadium they have ever seen.
"This is the best we have ever had. When they built the stadium, they built the court below the fans which makes the fans closer to the players without interfering with noise, that's really an essential difference about this place.
"It's also as large as the stadium we normally have, but the distance we have to travel is smaller ... very convenient very compact without being crowded."
The Paralympic Committee (IPC) official emphasized the efforts that made it accessible for the disabled.
"When you walk out you see the floor step, there is not only tactile. When there is a door there is a different pattern, when there is cross path, there is a different pattern.
"It is the right type of tactile for the blind and all of the corners they put in huge efforts in making sure that the facility accessible for the blind," added Leask.
Goalball, invented in 1946 by Austrian Hanz Lorenzen, was introduced to the world in 1976 at the Paralympics in Toronto, Canada and has been played at every Paralympic since.
Source: Xinhua
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