Sunday was the final day of goalball action at the 2015 IBSA World Games. It was the day that the goalball medals would be decided.

The day began with a hard fought battle between Australia and Canada for the women’s bronze. Despite the Australians best efforts, Canada was too strong. The star performer for the Canadian team was Nancy Morin who was able to make four of the five Canadian goals.

Next on the schedule was the bronze medal match on the male side between Sweden and Turkey. This was a very defensive match with neither team willing to make a mistake. However, it was Sweden who was able to score the only two goals of the match. Both of these goals were made by Fatmir Seremeti.

Finally it was time for the gold medal matches. First up was the female final between China and Israel. This match was won by great shot making during penalties. China received three noise penalties plus an illegal coaching penalty and Israel’s Elham Mahamid was able to convert on all of these opportunities. China was only able to make one goal. This handed the gold medal to Israel who has won their first ever major championship.

After this there was only one match remaining, the gold medal match between China and Lithuania. One of the stars of the Chinese team was unable to compete due to injury. Lithuania took full advantage of this and had yet another dominating win over China, 10-3.

We would like to remind readers; based on the results from this tournament a ranking has now been created. Who will qualify for Rio 2016 from this tournament will not be determined until after all regional championships have been played. An example is if you take the male results; if Lithuania win the European Championships then they will qualify for Rio as European Champions and the three male positions for Rio will go to second, third and fourth place from this tournament. However, if China wins the Asia/Pacific Championships as well as Lithuania the European Championships, then the three spots will go to third, fourth and fifth place from this tournament. To make this clear, a team will first qualify as a regional champion and after that then the list of teams from Seoul will be taken into consideration. The three top men’s teams and two top women’s teams who have not already qualified as a regional champion will then be granted a spot in Rio.

As always, we would like to thank all involved in this tournament for their hard work and dedication. Such tournaments could not go ahead without the hard work of administration staff, referees, officials, volunteers, athletes and support staff. We thank you all for your great dedication to the sport of goalball.