Penza, 4 August 2016. PenzaNews. Parental fear remains a main obstacle for further expanding the numbers of junior athletes with locomotor injuries, both in the Penza region and across the country, thinks chairman of the regional federation for disabled athletes “Povolzhye” and head of the regional sports federation for people with locomotor injuries Vladimir Novikov.

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“It all depends on parents. We need to work with them first of all,” he stressed during the open day meeting at the organization held in Penza on Thursday, August 4.

The issue is not limited just to the Penza region, Vladimir Novikov explained.

“Very few people play overall – around 36 of them at the world [championship] too,” chairman of the regional federation for disabled athletes “Povolzhye” noted.

Along with parental fear and reluctance to involve children with disabilities into sports, he mentioned the organization’s issues related to working with junior athletes.

“In your city of Penza, there are no adaptation offices in sports schools – people with disabilities cannot exercise there. Again, it all comes down to financial support. […] The groups are smaller there, and the exercises are more difficult. All of them need to change their rules and regulations,” Vladimir Novikov explained.

The chairman of the regional federation for disabled athletes “Povolzhye” stressed the importance of providing subsidies to support social non-commercial organizations.

“This is the only thing that helps us survive, since, regretfully, this year the Sports Ministry withdrew the adaptive sports support timetable for all sports. [There are] problems with financing the athletes, and material aid is provided only to Andrei Tersintsev who is the member of the Russian national chess team for people with disabilities. We used to be attending events two times in spring only for those subsidies alone – there was an adult team and a children’s team,” he said.

Also, Vladimir Novikov stressed that the athletes with disabilities are in a desperate need for a good coach.

“We are experiencing problems with finding a coach; I think this is temporary, and everything will get resolved by September. Thankfully, the Pedagogical College and the [Penza] State University are producing coaches able to work with children with disabilities,” he concluded.