HONOLULU, Hawaii (March 22, 2019) – A small group of Soldiers and Veterans from the Warrior Transition Battalions at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, traveled to Fort Bliss, Texas to compete in the 2019 Army Trials, Mar. 6-15, representing Team Pacific.
Army Trials is an adaptive sports competition held annually by the Army’s Warrior Care and Transition Program, where Soldiers and Veterans form the 14 WTBs on Army installations throughout the U.S. train and compete in several adaptive sports.
This year more than 100 competitors attended the 2019 Army Trials, 12 of the athletes, representing Regional Health Command – Pacific, earned a total of 57 medals in the ten individual sports offered at the competition: indoor rowing, powerlifting, wheelchair tennis, track, cycling, field, archery, shooting, golf, and swimming.
Also, during the two team events, wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball, there was no shortage of Pacific athletes making their presence known.
“We were small in numbers, but they were fearless in competition,” said Iosefa Liufau, adaptive sports program coordinator, Warrior Transition Office, Regional Health Command – Pacific.
During the wheelchair tennis competition, a new event at this year’s Trials, two of the three medals for this event were awarded to Pacific athletes, Sgt. First Class Albach Giovanni and U.S. Army Veteran, Capt. Tim Bomke.
Maj. Christina Carney was the gold medalist for the rifle shooting event, one of the most competitive events every year.
With little practice and training before the competition, Sgt. First Class Rey Bagorio won the bronze medal for the golf tournament; another new event offered this year.
Maj. William Hammac was the gold medal recipient for the archery recurve competition.
The Pacific athletes also swept the swimming events receiving the most medals out of all the regions, at 25 out of the 61 medals total.
“All of our athletes (Soldiers and Veterans) represented Team Pacific with courage and professionalism,” said Liufau, who is proud to support the athletes from Regional Health Command – Pacific.
Following the Trials, 40 athletes will be selected to represent Team Army during the 2019 DOD Warrior Games coming soon to Tampa, Florida, this June. Stay tuned.
Date Taken: | 03.21.2019 |
Date Posted: | 03.21.2019 23:12 |
Story ID: | 315284 |
Location: | US |
Web Views: | 46 |
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This work, Team Pacific: Small in numbers, fearless in competition, by Leanne Thomas, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.