Company Announcement - George Airport and the George municipality are gearing up for the biggest racing event, the 14th Outeniqua Wheelchair Challenge exclusively for athletes with physical disabilities to be hosted in the coastal city of George on Saturday the 20th of February 2016.The Outeniqua Wheelchair Challenge is an international wheelchair cycle challenge that has in the past attracted international athletes from as far afield as Switzerland, Ireland, England and a few others from within the continent, like Zimbabwe and Ghana.
“OCC is not only about top athletes from all over the world racing and winning titles, it’s an important event as in the past we have witnessed hundreds of young and old volunteers from George community coming together and supporting people with disability by taking part in a marathon,half-marathon,10km Race and Fun Event. ” says Ansle Swart, OCC organiser.
“As the organisers we believe that this year’s event will attract more people as every year we are committed to stage an event of a high standard to ensure the success not only for that year’s event, but to ensure that this becomes an annual event of note. The safety of all our participants is our priority that’s why we implement security measures such as closing the traffic routes that lead to York street and making sure we have medical facilities and ambulances on the marathon route” Swart added.
George Airports has been sponsoring the OCC for the past three years. OCC started in 2002 with only 27 athletes participating in a half a marathon (21 km) race and the number of participants has grown tremendously as for 2016 challenge the event has so far recorded over a 500 participants.
“George Airport is extremely proud to be associated with the OCC. We are committed to the disability sector, aimed at providing access to people with disabilities, further enhancing the integration of people with disabilities into our societies through the initiatives such as the OCC” says Brenda Vorster, George Airport Manager.