The Royal Spanish Handball Federation (RFEBM) has paralyzed the Spanish Beach Handball Championship that is celebrated in Almería in several fields where nails have appeared, for which reason they have also been restructured the competition calendars so that all meetings can be held.
As indicated in a note the RFEBMthe nails have appeared in some of the outdoor tracks installed on La Térmica Beach in Almería, to which he adds that it is “a situation unrelated to the organization of the event and that the federal entity and the City Council are taking the necessary measures to guarantee the safety of all participants”.
“With this scenario, the RFEBM has paralyzed the competition in the affected fields and the competition calendars have been restructured so that all the matches can be held. For this reason, we ask the participating teams to go to the RFEBM Beach Handball competitions section to check the new schedules for their respective matches”, they have added from the Federation.
For their part, sources from the Health and Consumption Delegation of the Junta de Andalucía have pointed out to EFE that five players have been treated in three health centers in the capital of Almería (one in Vega de Acá, another in Almería Centro and three in Bola Azul), where have received a tetanus shot after being punctured by these nails.
Also, from the Almeria City Hall have pointed out that the consistory only collaborate in this competitionso that the “responsibility” for the installation and its supervision lies with the RFEBM.
They have pointed out that a brigade made up of eight people has been sent to carry out a deeper cleaning of the slopes and that after this a group of six workers will remain permanently who will clean them again between matches.
They have influenced that the nails can come from activities such as the bonfires of San Juanand that these have been able to emerge because “there is a lot of movement of earth on many occasions in a very short time”, so that despite the fact that cleaning work is carried out after celebrations such as the one mentioned, it may be that some element remains buried in the sand
However, they insist that despite the general obligation of the City Council to clean the beach, it is the organizer who is responsible for supervising and determining what type of cleaning is allowed to be carried out in a competition like this and supervise the work.
The Spanish Championship began this Thursday and will run until July 30, with more than 4,000 participants, including players, coaching staff and referees, 268 teams and 540 games.
The Spanish Championship, included in the Arena Handball Tour, takes place on Playa Ciudad Luminosa, and has a ‘Fun Zone’ on Playa de la Térmica. It brings together the best teams in Spain, in the children’s, cadet, youth and senior categories, both in the female and male modality, and has managed to bring together more than 4,000 participants (3,950 athletes and 90 referees) during the four days of the tournament. A modality in which the percentage of participation is very close to parity between women and men.