At this moment Croatian national beach handball team gather to go to the Far East, Kaohsiung in
Taiwan, where 16 – 26 July 2009. 8th World Games will be held.
Following players will participate for the men’s team: Luka Bumbak, Josip Šandrk, Ivan
Jurić, Hrvoje Horvat, Mladen Paradžik, Krešimir Malbašić, Drago Vojnović, Davor
Rokavec, Ninoslav Pavelić,(coach Siniša
Ostoić) while for the women selection will play the following players: Dubravka
Bukovina, Marina Bazzeo, Anja Daskijević, Josipa Grebenar, Snježana Botica,
Melita Jug, Ivana Lovrić, Vlatka Šamarinec, Jelena Vidović (coach Mateja Brezić).
International World Games are multisport competition, intended for sports that are not
part of the Olympic Games. As a rule, World games are held one year after the
Summer Olympic Games, under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee , which means to promote the
same ideas about the sport and the Olympic spirit.
The first World Games were held 1981st in the U.S., and the basic idea of this event
is to promote the lesser known, but still attractive and popular sports. Some
of them eventually became the Olympic disciplines (badminton, triathlon,
taekwando), some were long past Olympic sports (such as Tug of War).
Participation in the World Games has become one of the evaluation criteria for
the inclusion of a sport in the Olympic program, but given that the current
position of the International Olympic Committee that the number of participants
at the Olympic Games limited to 10,500 athletes, unfortunately, many of the
World Games sports will never be seen in
the Olympic games. 
Sports in which players from all over the
world compete in the World Games are limited with the conditions of the
host city. The rule is that (only) for the World Games do not build additional
stadiums, arenas, pools, courts, so that the Olympics athletes competing in
sports, 25-30 selected by the host. Some sports are invitational, and in these
disciplines are not awarded medals.
At this year’s World Games will be the following sports – air sports, archery, billiards,
bodybuilding, bowling, canoe polo, sport dancing, diving fins, fistball,
Frisbee, gymnastics (aerobics, trampoline), Jiu-Jitsu, Karate , Korfball,
orientation running, lifting weights, Racquetball, rugby, climbing, squash,
sumo, Tug of war, water skiing. and 5 invitational sports – beach handball,
dragon boat, softball, tchukball, wushu.
Croatian athletes will compete on Chinese Taipei in the following disciplines: beach
handball, dance sport, Jiu-Jitsu, karate, billiards, bowling and archery. Good
luck to all athletes, and we wish them good luck!