The first Roller Basketball World Championship in Europe:

Rollerbasketball has gone a long way since the American Tom LaGarde first started playing in 1992.

In 1999 six Dutchmen travelled to New York, becoming the first non-American team participating in the official Rollerbasketball World Championship. The following year two European teams (from the Netherlands and Portugal) were present at the championship.

At the same time in Germany several groups were trying out basketball on inline skates. In 2001 Marco Burnus and Kai Franz from Cologne decided to bring all those groups together in an Inline Basketball Cup. Together with two Dutch teams ten teams from the German Republic played in the first Open German Inline Basketball Cup 2001 in the "Eis und Schwimmstadion" in Cologne.

Nowadays rollerbasketball prospers in Germany and the Netherlands. But the rollerbasketball community might be bigger. It is our goal to bring together as many teams (from the USA, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Croatia and perhaps Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Australia and Belguim) as possible this year in a Rollerbasketball World Championship in Cologne, Germany on the 24th and 25th of August 2002.

This can be considered an official invitation for the tournament. During two days we want to organise team games, international games and all star games. The "Eis und Schwimmstadion" grounds offer all the facilities needed: three indoor basketball courts with concrete surface, several basketball courts outside and a big lawn to put up tents. You can ask for more details.

Participating is more important than winning… We want to offer you a chance to meet all the people who like to play rollerbasketball, a community of maybe two hundred. The level of the game in general is not too high for beginners to join in. We are encouraging everybody to take part in this event, which can become a milestone in the history of rollerbasketball.

Joost Hartman joost.hartman@hetnet.nl Douwes Dekkerstraat 36-2, 1053 SX Amsterdam, the Netherlands tel: 0031 20 4040171

Marco Burnus marco@skate-network.de

http://www.nibbl.com

http://www.dribbl.nl

http://www.skate-network.de

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