Outgames sporting line-up gets added kick

Due to overwhelming demand, football has been added as the 18^th sport for the AsiaPacific Outgames in Wellington.

Teams from Melbourne, Sydney, Christchurch, Wellington, and Palmerston North have already expressed interest in participating.

There will be a men's and women's competition, with 7–12 registered players in a team. The competition will take a 7-a-side format, and all games will be played according to the rules of the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association.

"We have had more requests for football than for any other sport," says David Huxford, Co-convenor of Sports for the Outgames, "so we are very pleased that we have been able to secure a great venue for this.”"

The venue is Te Whaea Park, in Newtown, a five minute drive from central Wellington. It is accessible by public transport. This new venue, which only opened in July 2010, has an artificial surface.

The first day of the football competition is Sunday 13 March 2011.

Because football is a late addition to the sports programme, there will be an earlybird registration available for this sport until 30 November.

Earlybird registrations for the gams have been so strong that some sports competitions are now three-quarters full.

"By the end of October, we had already passed the target numbers that we had set for the end of November," says Registrations Convenor Peter Gordon. "In fact, we are currently only nine participants short of our end of December target."

The huge numbers have meant that organisers are now looking closely at the venues and schedules to ensure contingency planning is in place to meet the higher demand.

If registrations continue to run so far ahead of forecast, it also becomes increasingly likely that registrations for some sports event will have to close early, once maximum capacity is reached.

Sports such as running have no upper limit on numbers. For other sports, there is a maximum number that can be accepted for the competition to be completed, and medal winners decided, within the number of days allotted.)

Swimming, running, ten pin bowling, dance sport and volleyball are the most popular sports.

The Outgames takes place in Wellington, New Zealand, 12–19 March 2011. You can register at www.wellingtonoutgames.com.

The Outgames human rights conference registrations have a later earlybird cut-off date of 30 November.

Posted in: New Zealand Daily News
By GayNZ.com Daily News staff