We are pleased to announce that both our Men’s and Women’s Great Britain Goalball teams have made it through to the Semi-Finals of the 2016 IBSA European B Championships.
Both teams have reached the Semi-Finals in the most spectacular fashion. The Men’s GB team have played 5 games winning 4 and losing 1, scoring an eye-watering 65 goals along the way. On top of that all 4 victories came in the form of a ‘mercy stoppage’. This when a game is stopped early due a team being ahead by 10 goals. The Women’s GB team have had an even more extraordinary tournament, playing 5 and winning 5, 4 of which were also won by mercy stoppage. What makes this even more impressive is that they have scored 49 goals, yet only conceded 7. In their last 3 games alone they have scored 30, conceded 0…
Both semi-finals will be played tomorrow (Friday 6th Oct). The Women will be up against the Netherlands at 12:30pm, and the Men will be up against Slovenia at 1:30pm.
The top 3 teams from both the Men’s and Woman’s category’s will be promoted to the highest level of Elite European Goalball, the European A League. If the teams win their semi-finals they will ensure automatic promotion to the A League as well as give them a chance to become European B Champions.
It goes without saying that what these athletes are doing is truly inspirational.
There has be incredible support from the goalball community back in the UK watching on live streams and voicing their support on social media. On behalf of the Great Britain Goalball teams, Goalball UK would like to say a huge thank you to each and every person that has supported the teams, you have been amazing.
It’s an incredible showing from both squads who narrowly missed out on a place at Rio. Goalball UK currently don’t receive financial support from UK Sport for their elite development with the teams only able to compete internationally thanks to private sponsorship and individual fundraising.
For game-by-game updates and links to the live streams go to our Facebook page and our Twitter
