Belgium men's national goalball team

Belgium men's national goalball team

Belgium men's team throwing at Australia, 2018 World Championships, Malmö, Sweden (2018).
Nicknames	Belgian Bulls
Sport	Goalball
League	IBSA
Division	Men
Region	IBSA Europe
Location	Belgium
Colours	Red, white, black, yellow
Championships	Paralympic Games medals: : 0 : 0 : 0 World Championship medals: : 0 : 0 : 1
Parent group	Belgian Paralympic Committee
Website	www.paralympic.be

Belgium men's national goalball team is the men's national team of Belgium. Goalball is a team sport designed specifically for athletes with a vision impairment. The national team takes part in international competitions.

The team is also known as the Belgian Bulls as it is a tradition in Belgium to have animal names for national teams.

Paralympic Games

Main article: Goalball at the Summer Paralympics

1976 Toronto

The 1976 Summer Paralympics were held in Toronto, Canada. The team was one of seven teams participating, and they finished fourth overall.

1980 Arnhem

At the 1980 Summer Paralympics in Arnhem, Netherlands, thirteen teams took part. The team finished fifth.[1]

2008 Beijing

The team came back to the international scene in the beginning of the 2000s and worked itself up to an international level. After coming back to the A-division in 2006, the team qualified in for the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China, where they finished eleventh.

2012 London

The team competed in the 2012 Summer Paralympics from 30 August to 7 September 2012, in London, England. In Group B, they finished the round-robin in third place behind China and Iran. The team was beaten by Brazil in the quarter-finals, 0:3, and finished in seventh overall place.[2]

The following is the Belgium roster in the men's goalball tournament of the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[3]

No.	Player	Age
2	Johan de Rick	41
3	Bruno Vanhove	29
4	Youssef Bihi	35
5	Klison Mapreni	20
6	Tom Vanhove	29
7	Glenn Van Thournout	29

Group B round-robin

30 August 2012 16:15	Canada	2 – 4	Belgium	Copper Box, London Referees: Thomas Baerz (GER) Shinji Mizuno (JPN)
	Caron 2	Report	de Rick 2 Vanhove 1 Bihi 1

---

31 August 2012 21:00	Algeria	5 – 2	Belgium	Copper Box, London Referees: Ali Aldarsony (KSA), Juha Vuokila (FIN)
	Mokrane 3 Larbi 2	Report	de Rick 1 Bihi 1

---

1 September 2012 18:30	Belgium	8 – 6	Iran	Copper Box, London Referees: Morten Hammershoi (DEN), Juha Vuokila (FIN)
	de Rick 3 Bihi 3 Vanhove 1 Mapreni 1	Report	Sayahi 3 Jafari 2 Shahbazi 1

---

2 September 2012 15:00	Belgium	0 – 0	China	Copper Box, London Referees: Hooshang Shariati (IRI), Warrick Jackes (AUS)
		Report

---

3 September 2012 09:00	South Korea	3 – 5	Belgium	Copper Box, London Referees: Juha Vuokila (FIN), Morten Hammershoi (DEN)
	Kim C.-H. 2 Hong 1	Report	B. Vanhove 2 Bihi 2 Mapreni 1

Semi-final

5 September 2012 19:30	Brazil	3 – 0	Belgium	Copper Box, London Referees: Tony Connolly (USA), Vilma Venckutonyte (LTU)
	Marques 2 Almeida Maciel Celente 1	Report

The team tried to qualify for the Rio 2016 games but missed out during the 2014 World Championships and IBSA World Games.

2020 Tokyo

Main article: Goalball at the 2020 Summer Paralympics

The team competed in the 2020 Summer Paralympics, with competition from Wednesday 25 August to finals on Friday 3 September 2021, in the Makuhari Messe arena, Chiba, Tokyo, Japan. The team was selected for Tokyo 2020 following the 2018 World Championships in Malmö, Sweden.[2]

The following is the Belgium roster in the men's goalball tournament of the 2020 Summer Paralympics.[4]

No.	Player	Class	Date of birth (age)
1	Arne Vanhove	B2	(1983-08-17)17 August 1983 (aged 38)
2	Wassime Amnir	B1	(1991-02-01)1 February 1991 (aged 30)
3	Bruno Vanhove	B3	(1983-08-17)17 August 1983 (aged 38)
5	Klison Mapreni	B2	(1992-10-09)9 October 1992 (aged 28)
6	Tom Vanhove	B2	(1983-08-17)17 August 1983 (aged 38)
8	Rob Eijssen	B1	(1991-01-11)11 January 1991 (aged 30)

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	4	2	0	2	18	13	+5	6	Quarter-finals
2	Ukraine	4	2	0	2	18	15	+3	6
3	Turkey	4	2	0	2	15	15	0	6
4	China	4	2	0	2	21	22	−1	6
5	Germany	4	2	0	2	16	23	−7	6

Source: TOCOG

Round-robin

26 August 2021 09:00	Belgium	10−3	China	Makuhari Messe, Tokyo Referees: Woradet Kultawongwattana (Thailand), Bas Spaans (Netherlands)
	Mapreni 8 T. Vanhove 1 Amnir 1	Report	Yang Mingyuan 1 Hu Mingyao 1 Lai Liangyu 1

---

27 August 2021 09:00	Turkey	4–6	Belgium	Makuhari Messe, Tokyo Referees: Yoshinori Nii (Japan), Robert Avery (Great Britain)
	Karakaya 3 Gündoğdu 1	Report	B. Vanhove 3 Mapreni 2 T. Vanhove 1

---

28 August 2021 19:00	Germany	2–0	Belgium	Makuhari Messe, Tokyo Referees: Raquel Gomez Aguado (Spain), Vaida Pokvytytė (Lithuania)
	Dennis 2	Report

---

29 August 2021 13:15	Belgium	2–4	Ukraine	Makuhari Messe, Tokyo Referees: Yoshinori Nii (Japan), Robert Avery (Great Britain)
	Mapreni 2	Report	Oliinyk 2 Zhyhalin 2

World Championships

Main article: Goalball World Championships

2018 Malmö

The team competed in the 2018 World Championships from 3 to 8 June 2018, in Malmö, Sweden.[2] They confirmed their good level by winning the bronze at the Championships, and with this, they secured a ticket for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.

2022 Matosinhos

Main article: 2022 Goalball World Championships

The team competed in the 2022 World Championships from 7 to 16 December 2022, at the Centro de Desportos e Congressos de Matosinhos, Portugal. There were sixteen men's and sixteen women's teams. They placed fifth in Pool C, and tenth in final standings.[5]

Australia in a penalty situation seeking to defend a Belgium throw, at the IBSA World Games, Seoul, South Korea (May 2015).

IBSA World Games

Main article: IBSA World Games

2015 Seoul

The team competed in the 2015 IBSA World Games from 10 to 17 May 2015, in Seoul, South Korea.[2]

Regional championships

The team competes in the IBSA Europe goalball region.[6] Groups A and C are held one year, and Group B the following year. Strong teams move towards Group A.

2013 Konya (Group A)

The team competed in the 2013 IBSA Goalball European Championships, Group A, from 1 to 11 November 2013, at Konya, Turkey.[7] They beat Ukraine 5:3 to rank seventh in the overall standings.[2]

2015 Kaunas (Group A)

The team competed in the 2015 IBSA Goalball European A Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania. They lost their quarter-final match against Czech Republic, 4:10.[2]

2017 Pajulahti (Group A)

The team competed in the 2017 IBSA Goalball European A Championships from 15 to 23 September 2017, at Pajulahti, Nastola, Finland.[2] The team took its first ever medal on an international level by winning the bronze at the Championships.

2019 Rostock (Group A)

The team competed in the 2019 IBSA Goalball European A Championships from 5 to 14 October 2019, in Rostock, Germany.[2] In Pool B, they came third, winning two games of their four; finishing sixth overall.

See also

• Disabled sports
• Belgium women's national goalball team
• Belgium at the Paralympics

References

1. "Final Ranking in Paralympic Games". Madrid, Spain: International Blind Sports Association. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
2. "About goalball – Historical results". Goalball Sport. International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA). Retrieved 4 May 2021.
3. "Men's Goalball – Team Rosters – Belgium". London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
4. "Goalball – Team Belgium". Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 25 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
5. "Schedule and Results - GMT+0". IBSA Goalball World Championships 2022. Archived from the original on 17 December 2022. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
6. "IBSA members". International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA). Retrieved 26 May 2021.
7. "Goalball Europan Championship". Turkey: International Blind Sports Association Goalball Turkey. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014.