Among them are Cessnock-area swimmers Denver Kearney, Ranon Holstein, Sean Payne and Tonya-Lee Lacey along with ten pin bowler Andrew Stuckings, all members of Special Olympics Hunter Valley. 

The athletes will all be representing NSW at the championships and head aquatics coach Ellena Morris said that it is a testament to all of their hard work for such a big team from the region to be selected. 

Ranon, who won the Cessnock City Sportsperson junior athlete with a disability award for 2013, has had another successful year of competition after winning gold at last year’s Special Olympics Asia Pacific Games.

Sean is the youngest member of the NSW squad at just 10 years of age and this will be his first national championships.

This will be the second national championships for Denver, who has been coached by Ellena since he was three-years-old. 

This weekend the NSW aquatics team will hold a training camp at Kurri Aquatic Centre as they reach the final stages of their preparation for the nationals.

The camp will include training sessions in the pool as well as bonding sessions, team activities and a surprise special guest who will give a presentation on being part of a team. 

The national championships will be held from October 20 to 25 with more than 1000 Australian athletes with an intellectual disability representing their state or territory.

With competition across 16 Olympic-type sports, the games will be a huge celebration of ability as well as a qualifying event for next year’s Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles where athletes will have the opportunity to represent Australia on the world stage.

Fundraising pages have been set up to help cover the costs of getting each athlete to the championships. 

For more information visit www.specialolympics.com.au/nsw and click on the name of the athlete you would like to sponsor.