A number of events will take place today (Friday 17 May) in the Greek city of Patras to celebrate 100 days to go before the start of the 2nd Mediterranean Beach Games.
The multi-sport competition will take place from Sunday 25 – Saturday 31 August and features 11 sports across seven days. Sports include men’s and women’s beach handball in addition to aquathlon, beach soccer, beach tennis, beach volleyball, beach wrestling, canoe ocean racing, fin swimming, open water swimming, rowing beach sprint and water-skiing.
The 100 days to go celebrations will take place in Patras and last all day today with volunteer promotion, visual exhibitions of all sports as well as a sand court right in the centre of the city, at King Georgios I Square, to showcase beach handball and beach soccer.
The day will wrap up with a concert in the evening from singer Yuli Asimakopoulou followed by a concert from musical act Οnirama.
The Mediterranean Beach Games (MBG) held their first edition back in Pescara, Italy, in 2015, following a decision of the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (ICMG) Executive Committee in 2012, in Mersin, Turkey.
The debut women’s beach handball competition saw Italy crowned champions, followed by Greece in silver and Turkey in bronze, while Tunisia won gold in the men’s competition, followed by Cyprus in second and Turkey with another third place.
The MBG are celebrated every four years and bring together the athletes of the Mediterranean Olympic Committees, members of the ICMG, from three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe.
In further beach handball news, the Hellenic Handball Federation (Beach Handball Committee) announced details of the 20th National Championship of Beach Handball for men and women, as the official Test Event of the Patras 2019 Games. The ‘Final Four’ phase will be held at the central facility of the Games from 9-10 August and will be held at night, on Olympic-specification courts in front of stands which can accommodate up to 2,000 spectators.
The teams competing in the finals come from six tournaments held across Greece.
Compared to the previous Mediterranean Beach Games in 2015, current entries for the 2019 event have increased by 29% since Italy with 987 athletes registered to represent 24 National Olympic Committees. Beach handball saw 138 athletes take part four years ago, while the number
currently for 2019 is 200.
Greece will be hoping their women can win another title, following their gold medal at the 2018 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship in Kazan, Russia.
Find out more about the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (Comité international des Jeux Méditerranéens) via their
website.