First round of Goalball Team Championship is over

The First Goalball Championship was held in Yerevan on November 17 initiated by Armenia’s Sport Federation for disabled people.

Six teams from Yerevan, Gyumri, Stepanakert, Echmiadzin and Abovyan participated in the First Yerevan Goalball Team Championship. These teams are Nika and Eagle (Yerevan), Shirak (Gyumri), Storm (Stepanakert), Zipper (Echmiadzin), and Lions (Abovyan). In the first round, teams were divided into A class and B class. Lions, Nika, and Storm are in A class while other three teams are in B class.

In round one after hard struggle Lions won 17:14 over Storm and 14:10 over Nika, thus, top-seeding with leader title and entering the semi-final. Nika seeded second after 11:10 victory over Storm.

In B class’s first round Zipper won13:10 over Eagles and 17:3 over Shirak. Eagles, in its turn, won 15:9 over Shirak entering the semi-final.

Today marks the second round of Championship where Lions will play against Eagles, and Zipper will play against Nika. Of these two will later contend for champion title while losers will contend for vice-champion title.

Goalball is a team sport designed for blind athletes. It was devised by Hanz Lorenzen (Austria), and Sepp Reindle (Germany), in 1946 in an effort to help in the rehabilitation of visually impaired World War II veterans. The sport evolved into a competitive game over the next few decades and was a demonstration event at the 1976 Summer Paralympics in Toronto. The sport's first world championship was held in Austria in 1978 and goalball became a full part of the Paralympics from the 1980 Summer Paralympics in Arnhem onwards. Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded in it into the opponents' goal. They must use the sound of the bell to judge the position and movement of the ball. Games consist of two 10 minute halves.