National Championships of Goal Ball
on A Serendipitous Journey (Kenya), 02/Aug/2009 17:03, 34 days ago
On Saturday morning my friend Emma were invited to watch the Alpha Stars (KUB’s youth group) playing at the national championships ofgoal ball. Goal ball is a team sport designed for blind athletes and, as far as I can tell, the set-up goes something like this:- a pitch similar in size to a basketball court is lined with rope and tape (so that the blind athletes can feel the edges and various zones with their hands and feet)- the ball looks similar to a basketball and has noise bells within- a goal / net is set up on each end of the pitch- partially sighted players must wear blindfolds so that they are on equal ground with their blind counterparts.A team of three competitors on each side squat in front of their net as the opposing team throws the ball from the other side of the pitch trying to score a goal. The athletes, based on sound, position themselves (from what I saw, often throwing their whole body horizontally in front of the net) trying to block it from entering the net. Each game lasts about 20 minutes in total and the team with the highest score wins.Although we weren’t able to stay for the entire day, we watched both the men's and ladies team play one game each and in the evening received an SMS with some very exciting news! Our ladies’ team won the championships and will go on to Uganda, my good friend Loice won best female player and our men’s team came in second place overall.All in all a very good day for the Alpha Stars and a real learning experience for Emma and I.