The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is warming up and getting ready for the 2018 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships. edel-optics.de Arena will host the four best club teams in Europe on May 4th and 5th in anticipation of the sports highlight, which will take place on the Elbe from August 16th to 26th. CD Ilunion Madrid (Spain), Unipol Sai Briantea84 Cantú (Italy), six-time Champions League winner RSV Lahn-Dill (Wetzlar) and the newly crowned German champions, the RSB Thuringia Bulls (Elxleben), qualified for the final four of the IWBF Europe Champions League, the highest club competition on the European continent.
Spectators can look forward to a real wheelchair basketball treat, from the world's best players in Hamburg's Wilhelmsburg district at the beginning of May. Among the athletes are various Paralympic gold medal winners as well as many World and European champions, such as American's Brian Bell and Michael Paye (both RSV Lahn Dill), Matt Scott and Jake Williams (both RSB Thuringia Bulls) or the British stars Terry Bywater (CD Ilunion Madrid) and Ian Sagar (Briantea84 Cantú). The aperitif at the World Championship will be rounded off by Argentinian Adolfo Berdun (Briantea84 Cantú), Australian Bill Latham (CD Ilunion Madrid) and Germany's Aliaksandr Halouski, André Bienek (both RSB Thuringia Bulls) and Thomas Böhme and Annabel Breuer (both RSV Lahn Dill) as well as lots of rolling stars.
Anthony Kahlfeldt, Managing Director of WM 2018 Wheelchair Basketball gGmbH, who is responsible for the Final Four with his team, is also confident that the Champions League weekend will be an exciting sporting event for all players, fans and Hamburg citizens:
"It's amazing that we can welcome the four best teams of the continent in Wilhelmsburg. When else do Hamburg's citizens have the opportunity to experience the stars of the scene up close? I would like to recommend to all sports enthusiasts to stop by the edel-optics.de arena the first weekend in May together with their families when the Ronaldos, Messis and Müllers of wheelchair basketball meet up in the Hanseatic city. The event is more than just a rolling starter for the World Championships main course in August. I can assure you of that."
The programme
Friday, May 4, 2018
Semifinal 1 | 17.30 | CD Ilunion Madrid (Home) vs. Unipol Sai Briantea84 Cantú (Guest)
Semifinal 2 | 20.00 | RSB Thuringia Bulls (Home) vs. RSV Lahn-Dill (Guest)
Saturday, May 5, 2018
Match for 3rd place | 17.00 | Losers semi-final 1 vs. losers semi-final 2
Final | 19.30 | Winner Semifinal 1 vs. Winner Semifinal 2
The entrance fees
Entry on Friday is free. Tickets for the final day (05.05.2018) are available at the box office for 5 €. Reservations are not possible. Discount tickets are not available.
The Venue
edel-optics.de Arena | Kurt-Emmerich-Platz 10-12 | 21109 Hamburg Germany
The Livestream
All European premier class games are streamed - at no charge and freely receivable - via the wheelchair basketball world championship YouTube channel: Matjes is Suhsi Attack
Photography credit: Armin Diekmann
