Dandenong’s Shaun Groenewegen has claimed the Sandy Blythe Medal as Australia’s International Player of the Year for 2007.By Paul Pickering
DANDENONG wheelchair basketballer Shaun Groenewegen was last week awarded the Sandy Blythe Medal as the 2007 International Player of the Year.
The medal is the highest individual accolade afforded to a player on the Australian Rollers’ team, and is voted on by the athletes themselves at the completion of each international game.
For Groenewegen, 25, the award was recognition of his role in helping the Rollers qualify for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics – a campaign which included a gold medal at the Arafura Games in Darwin and a silver at the World Cup in Manchester.
The medal honours a Rangers icon in the late Sandy Blythe.
Blythe, who was Australia’s highest-profile wheelchair basketballer before he died in 2006, represented his country at four Paralympic Games and captained Australia’s Paralympic squad in Sydney in 2000.
Groenewegen, who is the playing-coach of Dandenong’s National Wheelchair Basketball League (NWBL) team, became the first Rangers player to win the award.
While personal reasons have prevented Groenewegen from taking part in Beijing this year, he will continue to be a key player in Dandenong’s 2008 NWBL campaign.
The NWBL season began late last month. Dandenong’s next home game will be against the Wheelkings on Sunday 29 June from noon.
