The Dutch team was the strongest in the women's category

Against all the odds, France won the European Wheelchair imgball Championships, Euroimg '97, held in Madrid (Spain) from June 21st to 25th.

The organisation proved a total success, leaving pleasant memories for all the participating teams, both winners and losers.

The stands in the pavilions of Real Madrid's Ciudad Deportivo (Sports Complex) and of the ONCE college, Antonio Vicente Mosquete, both in the Spanish capital, attracted a numerous crowd, especially during the opening and closing ceremonies and for the matches in which the local team, Spain, played. The impeccable sports facilities allowed the participants to display to the full their top-level sporting capabilities and thus offer a demonstration of one of the disabled sports that proves most spectacular.

One of the best decisions with respect to the organisational aspects was that of concentrating the two competition installations, the hotel for the teams and the auxiliary pavilion for training all within a three-kilometre zone of the north of Madrid.

As for the strictly sporting questions, four teams started out as clear favourites: Great Britain - until then European champion and Paralympic runner-up; Spain - local team and fourth in the Paralympics; France and Holland. In this sense, the forecasts more or less came true, the surprise coming from the revelation team in this competition - Finland.

In Group A, the predictions proved correct and Great Britain and France went through to the semi-finals, although not without mishap, since they were tied on points with Sweden and only got through on the individual img averages.

In the other group, Spain played really well and won all five games, whilst Finland caused a stir, knocking Holland out before the semi-finals.

The first semi-final was won easily by Great Britain (83-40 against Finland) and the second proved dramatic for Spain as, in spite of the unconditional support of their fans, they did not display what they are truly capable of and were defeated by the powerful French team (52-62). That was not the end of the misfortunes for the Spanish team, however. The next day, they were unable to recover from their semi-final defeat and lost once again in the third-place final, thus missing out on the bronze medal as well. On this occasion, Spain lost by 83 - 59 against Finland, a team they had beaten by 19 points on the opening day of competition.

HARD-FOUGHT FINAL

In the final, before over a thousand spectators who went to the Real Madrid pavilion, despite the absence of the host country's team, France snatched the continental title from its former holder. The match saw both teams fall victim to their nerves and, therefore, neither was able to demonstrate its most brilliant play. The French had already beaten Great Britain in the previous round and repeated the feat in the final. Following a hard-fought first half, France held the upper hand more clearly in the second, and only a few slips towards the end allowed the British to reduce the score difference to the final result of 44-46.

The top five teams that qualified for the World Championships next year in Australia were therefore the four semi-finalists - France, Great Britain, Finland and Spain - and Holland, which finally managed to come fifth, ahead of Germany (6th), Sweden (7th) and Italy (8th). The other places from 9th to 12th went to Israel, Belgium, Slovenia and Austria, in that order.

In the women's competition, Holland won the gold, beating Germany in the final (36-53). Both teams demonstrated a standard of play far superior to that of Great Britain, and even more so with respect to Israel and Spain, who occupied the 3rd, 4th and 5th places respectively.

Enrique Sanz, president of the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA), attended the opening ceremony of this Euroimg '97. Other examples of the institutional support received were the presence in the stands of the Real Madrid pavilion of the Secretary of State for Sports, Pedro Antonio Martín Marín, the director general of Sports, Santiago Fisas, and the president of the Real Madrid football club, Lorenzo Sanz. Of course, the maximum authorities of the organising bodies also sanctioned the event with their presence and officially opened and closed the event: Rafael de Lorenzo, executive vice-president of the ONCE Federation and vice-president of the Spanish Paralympic Committee; Juan Palau, president of the Spanish Sports Federation for the Physically Handicapped and of the International Sports Organisation for the Disabled (ISOD); and Philip Craven, president of the International Wheelchair imgball Federation.

Following the closing ceremony, everyone at the party to mark the end of the championships, both winners and losers, coincided in the view that Euroimg '97 had been the best ever European Wheelchair imgball Championship.

EUROimg'97 IN WHEELCHAIRS MADRID

FINAL CLASSIFICATION:

TOP SCORERS:

Petri Karkainen (Finland) 160 points (22,8 per match)

Diego de Paz (Spain) 149 points (21,2 per match)

Igor Dubrovks (Slovenia) 137 points (21 per match)

Best Player in the tournament:

Petri Karkainen (Finland)

WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT:

FINAL CLASSIFICATION: