Over the weekend of 19-21 March 2014 the International Goalball Tournament Venice took place along with an IBSA Goalball referee recertification clinic.
 
This tournament was open to both male and female club and national teams.
 
Eight male teams took part in this tournament. The nations of Ukraine, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Italy were joined by Team England, FIFH Malmö, Old Power and Napaja.  
 
The weekend was full of great goalball and the opening match was what set it all up. Czech Republic and Napaja played an 8 all draw.
 
This wasn’t the only draw for Napaja, they also drew against Slovenia. However, it wasn’t going to be the last time these two teams met in the tournament….
 
Old Power dominated pool B. However, which team would be joining them in the semi-finals from this group came right down to the wire. It was between Ukraine and FIFH Malmö but FIFH Malmö only just made it through with a narrow 8-7 win over Ukraine in their last round robin match.
 
Both of the teams from pool A won their semifinals comfortably leading to a replay of their pool match. However, this didn’t end so closely. Napaja took this easily over Slovenia 11-6. Bronze went to Old Power who was led by the tournament top scorer, Erkki Miinala.
 
On the female side, Ukraine, Greece, Sweden and Great Britain made up the female contingency along with Sergiev Posad and Kultamussukat.
 
This division was played as one group. It also started excitingly. Kultamussukat defeated Sergiev Posad by one goal and this was followed by Ukraine winning against Sweden by the same goal difference.
 
Kultamussukat proved to be the most consistent team throughout the tournament. They topped the round robin stage. In the semifinal they were lucky to keep their unbeaten record when they came against a determined Sergiev Posad. In the end Kultamussukat won again by one goal, 8-7.
 
In the other semifinal, Ukraine also remained stronger against Sweden but this time won by three goals, 5-2.
 
Consistency continued into the medal matches but they were very close and tighter than the round robin matches between the respective teams. In the gold medal match Kultamussukat won against Ukraine 8-7 and Sweden won the bronze with a 6-5 victory over Sergiev Posad.
 
The female highest goal scorer also went to a Finnish player. Katja Heikkinen topped the list of female goal scorers.
 
To see the full results, please view the documents at the top of this page.