Wednesday 28th June, The Belgian ParaHockey team was officially introduced to the public under their new name ‘Red Giants’. On a rest day during the Hockey World League in Brussels, the Red Giants held an exhibition day where they played a practice match, in preparation for their international adventure at the upcoming Euro ParaHockey Championships.
The crowd was in high spirits, cheering all throughout the game and showing their support! A training session was followed by a ParaHockey clinic for neighboring schools. The Red Giants also debuted their brand new kit, in the same line as the Red Lions, Belgium’s National Team.
The close game ended in a 2-2 score, the players received a round of applause from the ladies of the Dutch national team, who had come to watch and stayed to high-five all the Para Athletes. To top it all off, Tom Boon and Gauthier Boccard of the Red Lions showed up for a photo session with the Red Giants.
To end this amazing afternoon, the national ParaHockey squad got to do the line-up with the Red Lions before their practice game against New-Zealand. Afterwards the Red Giants stayed for this game and cheered the Red Lions on like no other.
ParaHockey in Belgium started in 2009 at Royal Wellington HC, and is locally known as G-Hockey or Hockey Together. Since 2012, the number of clubs with a ParaHockey team has increased enormously, to 18 teams across the country! Three more teams are slated to start in September as well, bringing the total number of ParaHockey players to 175.
The Red Giants will send 2 teams to Amsterdam that will compete in Amsterdam at 2 different competency levels.
Keep an eye on our website as we continue to feature the participating teams of the Euro ParaHockey Championship!
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Source: EHF/Leen Rycx