Sport for All - from school children to elite athletes, from Invictus heroes to parliamentarians (both elite and not so elite) having a go on the sports pitches was the name of the game and the last sitting week's sport had it all.

Wheelchair rugby, lawn bowls, sprint relays, A-League football stars and rowing machines took pride of place in a highly active week for parliamentarians.

Pollie Relay Dash

The Australian Sports Foundation’s inaugural #PollieRelayDash at Parliament House was a great example of people of all ages and abilities coming together to celebrate sports participation and philanthropy. There was a large  turn out of parliamentarians (17 in total), runners and supporters including Anika Wells, Andrew Leigh, David Pocock, Olympians Kim Brennan, Jessica Stenson and Sophie Scamps, local athletes from Radford College and the Canberra Gunners.

Invictus Challenge

The “Invictus Challenge”  provided the opportunity for parliamentarians to try their hand at one of the Invictus Games Adaptive Sports, competing with some fantastic Invictus Champions.

Participants gave wheelchair rugby, indoor rowing and lawn bowls all a good crack and of course their competitive spirits came through! Barnaby Joyce took out the 100m sprint on the rower, Anika Wells played by her own rules taking down Phillip Thompson in the wheelchair rugby and the lawn bowls wasn't quite as easy as it looked!

Luke Gosling and Matt keogh try to beat Barnaby Joyce's 100m time.

 

Sally Sitou demonstrating the three L's of bowling “Line, Length and Luck”.

Pollies v A-Leagues ‘All Stars’ game

The inaugural Pollies v A-Leagues ‘All Stars’ game was played at Parliament House in celebration of the upcoming 2022/2023 Isuzu UTE A-League Men and the Liberty A-League Women seasons.

The Pollies team was led by co-convenors of the Parliamentary Friends of Football, Nita Green and Bert 'the Cat' Van Manen with 'The Cat' excelling in leading the Pollies to victory in the penalty shoot out. The A-Leagues side was represented by former Danish national team, English Premier League and Melbourne City goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen. Also suiting up for the team were Canberra United stars Grace Maher and Laura Hughes, former Melbourne Victory defender Rita Mankowska and former Aston Villa and A-League defender Trent McClenahan.