Roundnet Germany’s International department strives to bring to roundnet aficionados located in Germany and Europe worthy roundnet news from outside our borders. We asked various NGB’s how they lived last year’s and roundnet’s biggest event yet: the Worlds, what exciting projects they currently develop to bring roundnet further at their national level, where the hottest roundnet communities are and which tournaments are open to international players. We hope you will enjoy this series – today with Roundnet Spain!
On top, international tournaments start now to be listed on our RG PlayerZone, so watch out!
1. Your Worlds Ranking, and overall feedback on the tournament
Definitely one of the best and unique experiences for us all. We are fairly happy with the results achieved from our players and it can only bring us excitement to start working harder to be ready for everything that is coming this 2023.
Spain got tied 13th in the men’s squad after winning Poland, losing to Canada, and finally, against Italy, with a 2-2 in the scoreboard, Italy won the last match in extras in the 3rd set.
A similar result was achieved from our womens, who won their first game against Japan, then lost to Switzerland and finally beat Taiwan for a tied 9th position.
Regarding our mixed team, they started with a very solid performance in the group phase, fighting all games until the last point. In brackets, however, they found a strong Finnish team in front of them that didn’t give them the opportunity to keep pushing. At the end, they finished tied 21st.
2. Current Roundnet National Champion presentation in all available categories.
MEN
Our last National Championship was celebrated in November 2022 on indoor ground, and the ones that claimed the crown were Erik and Matias (1st seed at worlds). They were able to beat „Mark Attack“ (2nd seed at worlds) in the 3rd set.
Matias is a well known spanish player in the international community, as he has been living in Germany and now in Switzerland, and Erik is a spanish player from Valencia who really stepped up at Worlds and was able to create good chemistry with Matias, with who had never played before, and so they did repeat together at nationals taking the victory home.
Also, an honorable mention for the runner up team, „Mark Attack“, formed by Marcos and Marco from Valencia, a team that has been dominating the competitive scene in Spain whenever Matias is not there.
WOMEN
Last National Championship was won by the team „Hummus de calabaza“ formed by Helena Molina and Alba Galvez, two of the strongest women in Spain that partnered up for the 1st and took the 1st place. They got to beat a team that has been dominating the women’s category in Spain most part of the year, „Las Chinces“, formed by Raquel Martín and Sara Villamariz, in a very close game.
MIXED
The winners in the mixed division were Matias Bermejo and Sara Villamariz that got to beat in three close sets to the team that has dominated during most of the season the mixed category, „Flying Free“, formed with Raquel Martín and Marcos Bermúdez.
3. Hot Roundnet Hubs in your country: where are located the biggest roundnet communities.
There are three main communities right now, located in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona, with a decent amount of players and that have started since late 2022 weekly training sessions to practice and also create a space where new players can attend to and get introduced to roundnet from zero.
Additionally, there are other communities that have been there for a while but they haven’t experienced the same growth as the main ones such as: Seville, Granada, Cartagena, Guadalajara, Zaragoza, Soria, Asturias…
For more info check out https://roundnetspain.org/clubs
4. 2023 expectations for Roundnet growth in your country (players base growth, how many new clubs and so on)
Last year was incredible and so many things happened that hyped up the community, so we expect to have an even better year this 2023. I would summarize the expectations in three points:
1. Making stronger our local infrastructure to make sure anyone in Spain that wants to practice roundnet is able to do it.
2. Bring new players into the game that will stay and grow our depth, especially through regular training sessions.
3. Our best players to reach the top European level of competition (Getting Pro / Premier status or whatever that would acknowledge that).
5. Projects at the NGB (e.g. national team, club, individual ranking, pro division etc.)
Lots of ideas but that are hard to make reality, we are still learning a lot about being an NGB and we haven’t found yet our best way to work out on a daily basis.
Basically we want things to happen, give as much freedom to the communities to handle their people the best way they can, and bring the national community together in every tournament.
This year we’ll be releasing a membership with an annual fee (until now it was free) to start building up some fundings that will allow us to undertake projects that we still haven’t figured out yet.
6. The big upcoming national and/or international events taking place in your country this year.
Our calendar for 2023 is formed by 3-5 „Máster tournaments“, co organized by Roundnet Spain and the local community where it takes place.
The two first masters of the year were happening for the first time, the one in Barcelona (already played the 18-19th February), and the one in Granada, which is taking place the next 20th of May. This last one was officially published with just a one month’s notice. We are very happy that they managed to pull it through, since we wanted to have a 4th tournament in our masters series and the fact that is happening in a fairly new community it will surely help their local development.
For the other two tournaments, this is the 2nd edition of the Guadalajara masters and 3rd edition for the Valencia one. Their previous editions were very successful and we are very excited to have them in our calendar this year again.
- 18-19 February in Barcelona
- April/May TBD. We want one tournament to happen there but nothing confirmed.
- 3-4 June in Guadalajara (Madrid)
- 23-24 September in Valencia (3rd edition, it’s becoming a classic already)
- October/November will take place our National Championship. TBD yet where and the exact date.
7. Any tournaments open for international players forecasted already?
International players are very welcome to any of our tournaments except for the National Championship, so please don’t hold yourselves up and join us!
