Belgium men's national goalball team
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 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  : 1 |
| Parent group | Belgian Paralympic Committee |
| Website | www |
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.
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
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 | 17 August 1983 (aged 38) |
| 2 | Wassime Amnir | B1 | 1 February 1991 (aged 30) |
| 3 | Bruno Vanhove | B3 | 17 August 1983 (aged 38) |
| 5 | Klison Mapreni | B2 | 9 October 1992 (aged 28) |
| 6 | Tom Vanhove | B2 | 17 August 1983 (aged 38) |
| 8 | Rob Eijssen | B1 | 11 January 1991 (aged 30) |
| Pos | Team | 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 |
- 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
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
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]
