More than 80 young athletes with physical disabilities will gather in Christchurch on 3 and 4 October for the third Halberg Games South, a two-day multi-sport festival run by the Halberg Foundation for South Island competitors aged eight to 21.
The Games will be spread across Ngā Puna Wai Sports Hub and Rangi Ruru Girls’ School, the same two venues used in 2024. Athletes will be able to try athletics, swimming, boccia, football, cricket, netball, hockey, golf, powerchair football, wheelchair basketball, badminton, goalball, hungerball and functional adaptive movement.
The event is a regional offshoot of the national Halberg Games held each year in Auckland. It is held every two years so that South Island athletes can have the same experience closer to home.
A Games born of a cancelled Games
Halberg Games South began in 2022, the year the national Halberg Games were cancelled because of COVID-19. In their place the Foundation announced three regional two-day festivals, in Christchurch, Auckland and Palmerston North. The first South Games were held on 1 and 2 October 2022, with Rangi Ruru as the base and the athletics at Ngā Puna Wai, and were open to athletes from Tasman, Canterbury, South Canterbury, Otago, Southland and the West Coast.
The national Games resumed in Auckland in 2023. The southern festival carried on as a separate event every second year, and the second edition in October 2024 included the first West Coast competitor in the history of any Halberg Games.
Removing the barriers
Rebecca Gillett, the Foundation’s Canterbury adviser, is leading the 2026 event. She said access to sport for young people with physical impairments was often limited by practical things.
“For young people with physical impairments, opportunities to participate in sport can be limited by accessibility, equipment and location too. Halberg Games South helps remove some of those barriers by creating a dedicated environment where athletes can compete, try new sports, build confidence and connect with other young people who share their experiences,” she said.
Halberg Foundation chief executive Tom Smith said the southern Games were about bringing those opportunities closer to where young people live.
“Halberg Games South reflects the Foundation’s commitment to ensuring young people with physical impairments have opportunities to experience the benefits of sport and recreation closer to home,” he said.
Sir Murray’s idea, sixty-three years on
The Halberg Foundation was set up in 1963 by Sir Murray Halberg, the Olympic 5000 metres champion whose left arm was paralysed in a rugby tackle when he was 17. Newswire told his story last month, from the boy in Eketāhuna to the gold medal in Rome and the decades of work for young people with disabilities that followed.
The Foundation says the Games grew out of Halberg’s belief that young people with physical disabilities should have the opportunity to take part in sport and recreation and experience the benefits that come with it. In July it launched a gifts-in-wills programme called Halberg Tomorrow, Play it Forward, aimed at keeping events like the Games running for future generations.
“When you see what the Games mean to young people and their whānau, you understand why it is so important that these opportunities continue,” Smith said. “Halberg Tomorrow is about looking ahead and making sure Sir Murray’s vision lives on, so future generations can experience that same sense of opportunity, connection and belonging.”
The Foundation says a Games weekend can be the first time a young person competes alongside others with similar experiences, and that friendships made there can continue long after the event is over.
Details
Halberg Games South 2026 opens at 8am on Saturday 3 October and closes at 5pm on Sunday 4 October, at Ngā Puna Wai Sports Hub and Rangi Ruru Girls’ School, 59 Hewitts Road, Christchurch. Event information is on the Halberg Foundation website.
Sources: Halberg Foundation media release, 31 August 2026; Halberg Foundation, Halberg Games regional sports festivals announced, April 2022; Halberg Foundation, Halberg Games South wraps up for 2024, October 2024.
Were you or your whānau at the 2022 or 2024 Games, or are you heading to Christchurch in October? Tell us about it in the comments.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
Leave a Reply