Each week we are digging through the Goalball UK archives to look back at some of our favourite memories from the sport from years gone by.
To get underway, we reflect on a historic week for our men’s and women’s Great Britain teams in 2016 in Portugal.
Both squads reached their respective finals of the 2016 IBSA European B Championship, securing promotion along the way, with the women claiming gold and the men picking up the silver medal.
The women’s team won the European B Championships in spectacular fashion. Over the course of the seven games they scored 64 goals yet only conceded nine, winning all seven to be crowned undefeated champions. In their four games building up to the final they won each in the form of a mercy stoppage – this is when a game is stopped early due to a team being ahead by 10 goals.
The men’s squad beat favourites Slovenia 9-7 in the semi-final having lost only a single game in the pool stages and accumulating a staggering 74 goals along the way. Four of their victories also came in from mercy stoppages.
The men’s squad only achieved promotion to the B league the previous year, which made this run of form truly memorable and absolutely remarkable.
