At the Paralympic Games in Seoul in 1988, the SFRY goalball team won a gold medal, and three years later they were European champions. Since then, there has been a "fast" when it comes to the medals of former Yugoslav goalball players. Of the former republics, only the Slovenians continued the tradition and are in the A group made up of the eight best European national teams. In other republics, golball is reviving.
For this reason, a friendly tri-match was organized in Nikšić, organized by Bedem Fest, in which goalball players from Nikšić, Podgorica and Belgrade took part. Even though they have been practicing goalball for less than a year, the people of Nikšić won the aforementioned tournament. The guests from Belgrade were second, while the Podgorica team took third place.
"This triathlon is very important for visually impaired people, and for the first time in Nikšić we are promoting a sport that is specific for the visually impaired. Goalball is the only sport that is played at the Paralympics, but not at the Olympics," said Goran Macanović, director of the Blind Association of Montenegro.
Goalball is a unique collective sport that is played in silence and is intended for visually impaired people who, on a relief-marked volleyball-sized court, play with a sound ball. The field on which the game is played is 18 meters long and nine meters wide, and the lines are formed by sticking the fuller rope to the parquet with a wide adhesive tape, so the relief can be felt by the touch of the foot. The ball, which is audible, rolls on the floor, so the players know where it is by the sound. The match lasts two halves of ten minutes each, and the player may not move to the opposing team's half. Goalball is played by six players, three per team, and the goal is a nine-meter line defended by three players, two from the back positions and one in the center. throw the same one after the six-meter line, because the ball must fall before the six-yard box so that the opposing players have enough time to hear it. Goalball is also played by people with a low percentage of vision, provided that they have opaque glasses or blindfolds as a mandatory detail, under which they even cover their eyes because the very feeling of light could put a player in a privileged position.
"Golball enables people with impaired vision to develop orientation skills, resourcefulness, and to a great extent shows how successful people with impaired vision can be in social life and playing sports," said Macanović.
Goalball is an extremely demanding game that requires good physical and mental fitness, and the players use the equipment of the goalkeeping program for football with reinforcements on the knees and elbows, and when choosing sneakers, care is taken to have thinner soles due to the need for a relief surface feel.
"Soon we will have the first registered club in Montenegro and I hope that a good story will start from Nikšić that can result in the development of a mini league at the level of Montenegro. The idea is to work on the formation of a Balkan regional league in the future, all with the aim of motivating people with impaired vision to play this sport, to travel and get to know different people and countries", said Macanović.
The game is much more intense
Petar Vranjković, a member of the golden generation of goalball players, was also in Nikšić, today the president of the National Sports Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Serbia.
"Today, goalball is played much faster and fiercer, although we played with more enthusiasm and desire, more fervently. As an experienced goalball player and winner of many medals, I think that the goalball trend started to decline with the advent of computerization, and inclusion is a big problem because our blind children who attend inclusive education are not represented in sports, since schools and teachers are not ready to work with these children in physical education classes. ", believes the winner of Paralympic gold.
Vranjković points out that the tournament in Nikšić will help to properly present the sport practiced by visually impaired people. He called on the local administration of the town under Trebjes, as well as other towns in Montenegro, to support the global in order for the mentioned sport to return to the tracks it was on 25 years ago.
War veterans game
Golbal was invented by blind Austrian and German war veterans during rehabilitation in an Austrian spa in 1946. The rules were set by the Austrian Hanz Lorenzen and the German Sep Reindl.
The ball was initially sounded from the outside by placing metal bottle caps on the wrapped netting, but when players started to injure their faces someone thought of sounding the ball from the inside with metal filings. Initially, the game was called rolbal (from the German words roller - rolling and ball - ball), but the World Federation for Blind Sports IBSA decided in the mid-80s to give the new name golbal, so that the uninitiated would not think that the meaning of the game is simply rolling a ball , not scoring a goal.
The game was included in the Paralympic program 30 years after it was founded at the Paralympics in Toronto in 1976, and the dimensions of the ball were reduced, in order to increase dynamism, and its volume from the initial 2,5 kilograms is now 1,25.
Today, golball is played in over a hundred countries around the world and is probably the only sport that is accompanied by absolute silence, which is necessary for the players to hear the bells in the ball.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
