THE Zimbabwe National Paralympic Committee will next week hold a five-day Para-Sports Education workshop at Danhiko.

The workshop scheduled for October 10 to 14, will be conducted by the Japanese Paralympic Committee instructors as the relationship between the two Paralympic Committees continue to grow.

The instructors are expected in the country on Sunday and they will be working with wheelchair basketball and tennis athletes to improve their skills among other things.

Japan will host the 2020 Paralympic Games and ZNPC secretary-general, Lewis Garaba believes the co-orperation between the two Paralympic Committees will benefit local athletes in preparing for the Tokyo Games.

“For our athletes we are considering those who have taken part in the national, regional or international competitions as we prepare for Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. We are looking at athletes who are at least below 23 years.

“For the coaches we are considering those with a tennis or basketball coaching course.

“The greatest thing we like is that we have already started working with the Japan Paralympic Committee for 2020. We are getting support from the Japanese Embassy and the government,” said Garaba.

In June there was a similar programme but focusing on athletics and Garaba said they are looking at creating opportunities for participation by athletes from different sport disciplines.

“They were here around June this year and this time they are coming for basketball and tennis. We are widening the opportunities for our athletes to offer more sport disciplines.

“However, the challenge we have is that we do not have elite athletes, so we are choosing those that have done well mostly at national and regional level. We do not have a particular number in terms of the expected participants. But we had set 10 slots for both male and females,” Garaba said.

During the five-days, participants will have an opportunity to apply what they would have learnt in a competition slated for October 13.