Gold medals from the Special Olympics World Winter Games

27 March 2017

The Special Olympics Azerbaijan’s national floorball team of took part in Special Olympics World Winter Games on March 13-26, 2017 in Graz, Austria.

Our national team's results were as 1 win, 1 draw and 3 defeats in the preliminary matches for dividing into groups:
  Azerbaijan - Czech Republic – 0 : 5
  Austria-2 - Azerbaijan – 1 : 1
  Gibraltar - Azerbaijan – 0 : 6
  Azerbaijan - UK (Isle of Man) – 1 : 2
  Azerbaijan - Cote d'Ivoire – 5 : 0

The national team of Azerbaijan continued the competition in the fourth group and had consecutive 6 wins:
  Azerbaijan - Ireland-2 – 8 : 2
  Austria-2 - Azerbaijan – 3 : 4
  Azerbaijan - Argentina – 8 : 0
  Azerbaijan - Cote d'Ivoire – 11 : 0
  Azerbaijan - India – 8 : 0
  Azerbaijan - Germany – 10 : 0

Subsequent to the 6 victories in group matches, our national team passed out of the strong division and advanced to the semi-final stage along with Austria-4, UK (Isle of men), and Venezuela. The semi-final matches resulted as follows:
  Azerbaijan - Austria-4 – 7 : 2
  Venezuela - UK (Isle of Man) – 4 : 3

The semi-final stage winners struggled for the 1st and 2nd places, whilst the others played for the 3rd and 4th places. The results were as follows:
  Azerbaijan - Valencia – 7 : 3
  Austria-2 - UK (Isle of Man) – 4 : 3

Accordingly, the final results:
  Azerbaijan – 1st place
  Venezuela – 2nd place
  Austria-4 – 3rd place
  UK (Isle of Man) – 4th place

In general, our floor hockey team have participated four times in Special Olympics World Winter Games with the follows results:
  – 1997, Toronto, Canada – 2nd place
  – 2001, Anchorage, Alaska, US – 3rd place
  – 2005, Nagano, Japan – 3rd place
  – 2013, Pyeongchang, South Korea – 2nd place

Only after 20 years, for the first time, on the national team took part in a World Special Olympic Winter Games and won gold medals.