Lithuania win International Men’s Goalball Tournament

Lithuania – which finished in fourth place at the London 2012 Paralympics – now remain at No. 6 on the world rankings and are followed by Algeria, USA, Finland and Spain in said order. Ukraine are further down at No. 18.

Seven men’s goalball teams from around the world met in Vilnius, Lithuania, beginning on 24 April for three days of competition in the Lithuanian Blind Sports Federation’s International Men’s Goalball Tournament.

The tournament included two teams from Lithuania along with national teams from Algeria, Finland, Spain, Ukraine and the USA.

Lithuania’s top team – which included Nerijus Montvydas, Arturas Jonikatis, Zydrunas Simkus, Sulius Leonavicius and Marius Zibolis – finished in first place and Algeria took the second spot.

Lithuania’s second team finished in third place and were followed in the standings by Finland, Spain, USA and Ukraine, respectively.

Algeria’s Mohamed Mokrane led all players in the tournament with 43 goals, while Montvydas was the leading scorer for the winning team with 27 goals.

Lithuania – which finished in fourth place at the London 2012 Paralympics – now remain at No. 6 on the world rankings and are followed by Algeria, USA, Finland and Spain in said order. Ukraine are further down at No. 18.

The next major men’s goalball tournament will be Belgium’s Parantee Championships, which run from 1-5. The tournament will be another chance for teams to check out their competition ahead of the IBSA Goalball World Championships, which take place from 26 June – 7 July in Espoo, Finland.

The Parantee Championships will be streamed live and can be followed on Twitter at @parantee (official hashtag #PaPaChamps) and on Facebook by searching PaPaChamps International Goalball Tournament.