By Tom Degun

June 16 - Mike Fennell, the President of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), claims that there will not be a Paralympic Commonwealth event separate from the Commonwealth Games in the foreseeable future as they believe that full integration is the best way to accommodate disability sport and its athletes.  



The Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games saw elite athletes with a disability officially compete at the Games for the very first time.

The historic move made the Commonwealth Games the first fully inclusive international multi-sport Games ever.

Following the success of Manchester, Melbourne featured Paralympic sport events on their programme when they hosted the Games in 2006 while Delhi are set to increase the number of Paralympic events when they host the competition this October.

But despite the growing number of Paralympic events at the Commonwealth Games, Fennell has insisted that the CGF will not create two separate Games for able-bodied and disabled athletes in a move that would draw similarities with the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Fennell said: "With have a partnership with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and we continue to strengthen that partnership but let me try and explain.

"It is a fact that we have decided not to have a separate Paralympic Commonwealth event because we believe that full integration is a better way to treat the Paralympic sports.

"We think it is best to have Paralympic sports featured at the same time as the able bodied sports and not treat them as a separate body.

"I am not criticising anybody in the slightest but I do believe that our current system demonstrates more inclusiveness than the alternative."

Fennell also revealed that the CGF are continually looking to update Paralympic events at the Commonwealth Games and will adopt the same policy with Paralympic sports at the Games as they do will abled-bodied sport. 

He said: "What we need to do with the Paralympic sports, as we indeed do with the able-bodied sports, is review the programme to see whether we can add some more events or whether we need to change some events to make it more relevant as time goes by.

"This is because the world is changing fast and we need to change with it.

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