Greytown tetraplegic named in latest Wheelblacks squad

Chris Lay can make you feel like the laziest person on the planet.
And he certainly doesn't mean to - it's just that in a little over a year, the inspirational Greytown tetraplegic has achieved more in sport than most able-bodied people could hope to in a lifetime.
Since deciding to take up wheelchair rugby in 2007, the 26-year-old has risen through the sport to last week be named in the New Zealand Wheelblacks squad.
The selection makes him the first Wairarapa person to make the team.
Lay was managing a South Wairarapa dairy farm when he fell asleep at the wheel on a straight piece of road in 2007.
His car flipped several times, trapping him for four hours and leaving him with a broken neck.
It was while he was recovering at Burwood Hospital in Christchurch that he was introduced to wheelchair rugby.
"I saw some of the Canterbury boys at rugby training and thought, that looks good."
After returning home in September 2007, he decided to get involved with Wellington's regional side.
Lay said the wheelchair rugby is a full-on, fast-paced and highly-tactical sport with a complex rulebook, demanding both a sharp mind and good level of fitness.
"It's very complicated - I'd say it's a combination of basketball, rugby and gridiron all rolled into one.
"It's also a game that gives you focus, strength and ideas and techniques to make day-to-day life easier so you can do things more independently."
Developed in Canada in 1977, the game is played on a court by teams of four using a round ball over four eight-minute quarters.
Players are classified according to their functional level and assigned a point value ranging from 0.5, the lowest functional level, to 3.5, the highest.
The total classification value of all players on the court for a team at one time cannot exceed eight points.
"I'm a low-point player at 1.5, so I'll protect the high-point player from the opposition as we attack."
Not surprisingly, that position comes with its fair share of crashes and bashes - and he's been knocked over on more than one occasion.
Lay began playing the sport more competitively last year and more recently helped a Wellington team that hadn't won a game in years secure seven out of eight matches.
He has thrown himself into a rigorous training regime, in
which he spends around 30 hours a week pushing weights and working on his triceps, biceps and shoulders.
Lay said his strength and fitness was largely thanks to the staff at the Greytown Health and Fitness Centre, where he trains two days a week.
"They're half the reason I made the team."
While he was surprised enough to be picked for a provisional New Zealand side of 14 earlier in the year, he certainly didn't expect to find out he'd made the Wheelblacks last week.
"It came as a real surprise.
"I thought I'd be more on
the fringe and after more
training might have a better shot next year.
"My aim was to try to make the side going to the 2012 Olympics in London.
"After I got picked for the development side, I upped my training and I started getting good vibes, and thinking maybe I did have a chance."
The phone has been ringing constantly with messages of congratulation.
"Of course my mum in Auckland has been telling all of her friends, so I've been getting lots of calls from people I don't know," he said with a laugh.
Now training for the Oceania
Zone Championships in Christchurch this November, Lay plans to celebrate in a combined party with his friend Gavin Rolton, from Kapiti, who also made the team.
"I think there'll be a little party at some stage."