Alongside the 2017 IWBF Asia Oceania Championships, which was held in Beijing, China in October, the Zone ran a referee clinic.
The clinic served three purposes:
- To prepare the tournament officials for the championships
- Allow existing zone and international officials to refresh their license and
- Allow existing national referees to be examined for zone and international licenses.
All in all, twenty-six (26) officials from ten (10) countries took part in the clinic which covered topics including:
- Contact Principles - Developing a Common Understanding
- Three-person mechanics and modifications for wheelchair basketball
- Rules and Interpretations Update
- Classification
- Game Control and Game Management
- Pre-game Preparation
- Wheelchair handling (practical hands-on session)
- On court mechanics
To achieve their zonal or international license the candidates were required to successfully participate in the clinic, pass both a theory and fitness test as well as a practical observation examination during the games.
Eleven of the officials passed the examination, ten of whom are new to the IWBF Technical Family, two received their international license and nine their zonal license.
New International Officials:
- Shunsuke NIKAIDO (JPN)
- Chih-Hsin HSIAO (TPE)
New Zone Officials
- Zijian GENG (CHN)
- Wie RAO (CHN)
- Yang WANG (CHN)
- Kai Chiu CHENG (HKG)
- Cheuk Lam (June) WU (HKG)
- Maryam DEHESTANI (IRI)
- Farshad SANATGAR (IRI)
- Geghard TAHMASIAN (IRI)
- Yoshie ICHIYA (JPN)
IWBF Asia Oceania Zone Technical Officer, Matthew Wells, said “Congratulations to all these officials and also to the countries that have prepared the candidates so well. It is also pleasing to see the increasing number of female officials within the zone.
“I would especially like to thank Norbert Kucera (GER) for assisting in the preparation and leadership of the clinic and providing the opportunity for Sebastien Gauthier (CAN) to attend and assist with both the clinic and examination process.
“This tournament also provided an opportunity to continue the development our leadership capacity in the zone with Eisuke Kanno (JPN) and Poh Boon Yap (MAS) assisting with both the clinic and acting as supervisors for the Championship.
“Thank you must also go to Tomas Pajer (CZE) for attending the Championships as part of the IWBF World Referee Exchange Programme. Tomas was very generous in sharing his experience and understanding of the game with the officials with whom he worked.”
