Next Championships of Wheelchair Basketball
As the European Wheelchair Basketball Championships are a biennial tournament, they occur every two years. Teams from all around Europe compete with one another to come out on top and qualify for the IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championships and the Paralympic Games. The championships for men which started in 1970 for men and in 1974 for women, have been continued ever since. Each tournament is held in a different country, and each venue is selected after a bidding procedure.
2017 IWBF European Championship
International Wheelchair Basketball Federation is the governing body that is responsible for organizing the sport of wheelchair basketball. IWBF has four different programs named IWBF Europe, IWBF Americas, IWBF Asia, and IWBF Africa. The Rio 2016 bronze medalists Great Britain entered the tournament to defend their 2015 IWBF Men’s European Championship title, and Germany’s women’s team, the silver medalists at the Rio 2016 entered as the reigning champions.
Men’s Tournament
The 2017 IWBF Men’s European Championship was the 23rd edition of the European Wheelchair Basketball Championships that were held from 21 June to 30 June in Tenerife, Spain.
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Teams
12 teams participated in the tournament with a selected squad of 12 players in each team. Athletes were divided into different categories of disability, ranging from 0.5 to 4.5, with the lowest score representing the highest level of disability. According to the rules, each team must not exceed a cumulative score of 14.
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Results
The 12 teams were divided into two groups, namely A and B. Group A consisted of France, Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, and Italy while group B was made up of Turkey, Great Britain, Israel, Germany, Sweden, and Lithuania.
From the group stages, France and Switzerland were knocked out in Group A, and Sweden and Lithuania were placed at the bottom of Group B. The rest of the tournament was played in a knockout format where the quarter finals took place on 27th June. In the quarter finals, Netherlands beat Israel, Great Britain beat Poland, Turkey beat Italy, and Germany beat Spain.
In the semifinals that were held on 28th June, Great Britain beat the Netherlands meanwhile Germany lost to Turkey. The final took place between Great Britain and Turkey, in which Turkey took the glory. Germany won the third place while Netherland, Spain, Poland, Italy, Israel, France, Switzerland, Lithuania, and Sweden took the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth place respectively.
Women’s tournament
The 2017th IWBF Women’s European Championship was the 16th edition of the tournament held on the same dates as the men’s tournament.
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Teams
A total of 6 teams participated in the tournament namely Germany, Netherlands, France, Israel, Great Britain, and Yugoslavia.
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Results
The final of the Women’s European Championship was played between the Netherlands and Germany in which the Netherlands thrashed Germany with a 10 points difference and marked victory as the 2017 IWBF Women’s champions. The game for the bronze medal was played between Great Britain and France in which Great Britain easily beat France by a point difference of 68-37.
2019 IWBF European Championship
The 2018 IWBF European Championship took place in two different countries Poland and the Netherlands. The men’s Division A Championships took place between the dates 28 August – 9 September in Swiebodzice, hosted by the Polish Basketball Federations meanwhile, the women’s edition of the tournament took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, held from 29 June – 9 July. Both competitions were a qualifying tournament of the Europe Zone for the Paralympic Games that are going to be held in Tokyo in 2020.
Men’s Tournament
The 2019 IWBF Men’s European Championship was the 24th edition of the European Wheelchair Basketball Championships that were held in Walbrzych, Poland.
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Teams
The rules for the qualifying for the tournament were the same as the previous version of this tournament. This time Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, and Austria were placed in group A, while Spain, Netherlands, Israel, Russia, France, And Turkey were placed in group B.
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Results
Great Britain got the first spot from group A. Switzerland and Austria got the bottom two positions. From group B, Spain earned top position while Israel and Russia were the bottom two teams. The quarter finals and the matches for 9th to 12th position were played on 6th September. Switzerland beat Russia and Israel beat Austria to compete for the ninth place. Meanwhile, on the other hand, Great Britain beat France, Turkey beat Italy, Germany beat the Netherlands, and Spain beat Poland in the quarter finals. On the next day, Switzerland competed with Israel for the ninth place in which the Swiss team came out on top, and Austria earned the eleventh place by beating Russia. Italy beat Poland to earn the fifth place and the Dutch beat France to earn a seventh place in the tournament. The semifinal was played between Turkey and Great Britain, and between Germany and Spain in which Great Britain and Spain went through to the finals. The finals and third place matches were held on 9th September in which Great Britain took the glory by being the 7th time winner while Turkey won third place.
Women’s Tournament
The 2019th IWBF Women’s European Championship was the 17th edition of the tournament.
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Teams
In the latest edition of the IWBF Women’s European Championship, 6 teams took part in the tournament namely Netherlands, Spain, Great Britain, France, Germany and Turkey.
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Results
On day one of the 2019 Women’s Championships, the host Netherland, Great Britain, and Germany got wins over Spain, France, and, Turkey. On day two, France played against Germany, Turkey played against the Netherlands, and Great Britain played against Spain. Germany, Netherland, and Great Britain got wins under their noses. On day three of the tournament, France beat Turkey, Germany overcame Spain, and the Netherlands got better of Great Britain. In round four on the tournament, Great Britain got back to winning ways by beating Turkey, Netherlands got a win over Germany, and Spain got their first win of the tournament. On the end of the fifth day, Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, and Spain got top four positions in the group and qualified for the semifinals. In the semis, Great Britain earned a spot in the finals by beating Germany, and the hosts beat Spain to play in the finals. In the final, The Netherlands retained the Women’s European Championship title by beating their rivals Great Britain.
