The Canberra Parliamentary Sports Festival is over for another year and has been a great success. 175 Politicians, staffers, athletes, diplomats, sporting bodies and family participated across ten sports with great enthusiasm and enjoyment.
See here for some of the press coverage about the day.
New Speaker The Hon Anna Burke MP enjoyed a short time out with her children to sail on Lake Burley Griffin on her last day as Deputy Speaker. She was joined by Shadow Sports Minister Luke Hartsuyker, Senator David Fawcett and MPs Dennis Jensen and Rob Mitchell. The cross party crew enjoyed expert tuition from Olympic silver medalist Olivia Price.
Across town at Reconciliation Place football teams from the Embassies of Afghanistan and Japan took on the Parliament FC and Football United. The finals round took place at the Senate Oval with the Afghanistan Embassy, captained by their Ambassador securing the championship with a draw against Parliament in the final round.
Out at Deakin teams from the Sri Lankan High Commission, the Indian High Commission, the Lords Taverners and Parliament CC took part in a six-a-side competition. The Parliament team, with Colbeck, Hayes and McCormack to the fore fought hard but eventually went down to the excellent Sri Lankan team led by the High Commissioner. A small consolation for the T20 defeat the previous day to the West Indies.
The tennis competition saw former world No. 8 John Alexander MP play with the Ambassadors from Turkey and Uruguay and a number of their colleagues. The diplomats took on the might of both Parliament and Tennis Australia.
Netball saw a match between the Parliamentary Owls and a Canberra Select team, further flooding the Parliamentary triangle with athletes of all abilities. A hard fought game resulted in an honourable draw, with netball declared the winner.
Many of the competitors descended upon the Senate Oval for the final action of the day. Led by AFL greats Tom Harley and Robert 'Dipper', DiPierdomenico, The Senate won with the last kick of the day in an exciting display of AFL 9’s. The Festival was a great example of the cross party goodwill generated by parliamentary sport, politicians from all parties joined together to demonstrate the wonderful relationship building qualities of sport.
In front of Parliament House Bernie Ripoll MP, Olympian Steve Hodge, and other parliamentarians from the ‘Riders on the Hill’ were joined by local cycling group Pedal Power, Michael Milton and local politicians Andrew Barr, Alistair Coe and Shane Rattenbury. All then enjoyed a ride around the ‘greatest half day cycle ride in Australia’ before returning to Parliament House.
Credit for bottom photo: Graham Tidy, The Canberra Times
Back at the Senate Oval, the Touch Football was in full flow with the Brumbies providing two teams to compete against Parliament, Touch Football Australia and the NZ High Commission. In a close final TFA defeated Parliament by one touchdown.
The hockey out at Lyneham also proved successful with Sports Minister the Hon Kate Lundy, Andrew Laming MP and the Hon Mark Dreyfus MP taking on an ACT Representative side.
Further afield at the golf German Ambassador Christoph Moeller took out the comp despite strong opposition from Randall, Secker and Van Manen amongst others.
