During three days in late April, the IBSA Goalball Sport Committee carried out a development clinic at the Princeton Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, for some regional countries.

Thailand, the host country, Laos, Indonesia, and the Philippines participated with coaches, players, and referees in a clinic conducted by Aurora Zanolin (IBSA Goalball Chairperson), Alexey Baryaev (Goalball Sports Director), and Bulent Kimyon (Goalball Referees’ Coordinator).

The fundamental principles of the sport were explained, and all the doubts were answered to promote the best practise of the sport in the region.

“Thank you very much to IBSA”, started Mr. Sukanti R. Bintoro, coach from Indonesia. “The conductors were good, resourceful people, experienced, energetic, able to explain matters clearly, and patient listeners to questions and comments from participants. The materials in the clinic were very useful. A few things that I thought I had known turned out to have more detailed clarifications”, added.

The national head coach of the Philippines, Alfredo Rey Estacion, stated: “Matters that were vague before are now crystal clear to me and to my assistant coach, Jomer Anden. Now we are more confident in re-echoing goalball in our country, and we are glad that we were given the opportunity to participate. We also thank IBSA for providing that much knowledge, reaffirming what we know, and we also want to extend our gratitude for the equipment we got, including ball and eye shades.”

“We hope that IBSA keeps good projects like this one, coming back to provide knowledge for the development of global sports in the ASEAN region, equal to other regions of the world”, concluded Tarawoot Gumneudsook, Thai referee.