On 24th August 2024 England Kabaddi Union, EKU, took part in the European Beach Kabaddi Championships in Augustow, Poland. This was the first edition of the tournament and was organised by Polish Kabaddi Federation backed by the International Kabaddi Federation – which EKU are affiliated to. EKU submitted both a men’s and a women’s team into the tournament. EKU also provided two referees who had completed their referee certification programme, Karmanya Singh Sareen and Tope Adewalure. The contingent were supported by communications officer Radhika Yadav and president Sanjay Patel.
There were 6 men’s teams participating, split into two groups of three. Group A consisted of Poland, Hungary and Scotland; Group B consisted of England, Norway and Ukraine. There were 3 women’s teams participating which included Poland, England and Hungary. The matches were 30 minutes long split into two halves of 15 minutes.
England men’s played against Norway first, initially they were losing the match but turned it around to win comfortably. Then England men’s played against Ukraine and won easily despite Ukraine’s strength and power. This meant England men’s were into the semi-finals as group winners.
England women’s played first against Hungary and won the game comfortably with a strong defence and excellent raiding. However, England women’s then played against Poland and they lost by a considerable margin. Because Poland women beat Hungary this meant that England women’s finished 2nd in the group and therefore qualified for the final.
England men’s played against Scotland in the semi-finals in a close encounter but England edged into a lead which they never looked like conceding. In the other semi-final Poland beat Norway which meant that England men’s played Poland in the finals. Unfortunately, despite a valiant effort England came up short and Poland won the men’s tournament.
Similarly, England women’s put on an excellent show in the final against Poland but narrowly lost the final.
Despite the losses in the finals, EKU were proud to have achieved the runners up position in both the men’s and women’s tournaments. Especially considering it was the first time England participated in a Beach Kabaddi tournament. In the post tournament honours, Hania Hussain won best defender for Women’s and Taaher Kabir won best defender for Men’s.
We thank Polish Kabaddi Federation for a fantastic tournament and we look forward to participating in the next one – hopefully we will go one better!
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