On 25-27 July, the 18th Republican Sports Festival for Persons with Disabilities took place at the Tsakhkadzor Sports Base.

About 120 athletes took part in the festival within the framework of the following sports: arm wrestling, weightlifting, wheelchair basketball, chess, swimming, table tennis.

“We live in a difficult period. It is time to understand that the success of the country consists of the successes of all of us, and that joint success will bring success to the country,” Hakob Abrahamyan, President of “Pyunic” Armenian Association for Persons with Disabilities said.

According to Gohar Navasardyan, a member of “Pyunic” Armenian Association for Persons with Disabilities, this is not only a sports festival where athletes compete and win in various sports, but also a social program that allows people with disabilities to leave home and be included in society. “Sport is the most important means by which we are able to have participants every year who try themselves in different sports, many of them achieve great success in the future,” she noted.

Hakob Abrahamyan adds that there is a good opportunity to develop sports for people with disabilities in Armenia, but funding is not enough. The state should invest more in this direction, because sports for the disabled not only provide opportunities for people with disabilities, and especially for young people who have become disabled in the last year, but we all know that sports are the best way to get involved,” President of “Pyunic” Armenian Association for Persons with Disabilities emphasized.

“I am very glad that there is such an opportunity for the participants of the war to get involved in the world of sports, to forget their problems,” Arthur Asesyan, a participant in the Second Artsakh War, says.