First edition of European Para Championships a great success!

Four years ago, the idea of the #EPC2023 originated with general manager Eric Kersten. A unique event in parasport within Europe; organising multiple European Para Championships at the same time, thus strengthening the parasport.

10 different sports

During this event, there was competition for the title of European Champion in the following sports: para archery, para badminton, boccia, para cycling, goalball, para judo, shooting para sport, para taekwondo, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis. Each sport was organised at or around Rotterdam Ahoy, with finals facilitated in the city centre for four sports. Para archery enjoyed the beautiful view during the finals on the Kop van Zuid. Wheelchair tennis and Boccia joined forces with finals on Schouwburgplein. And para cycling's Team Relay was run around the Scheepvaartkwartier.

Paralympics

There was even more at stake for the athletes than just the title of European Champion. In each sport, points or even direct qualification for the Paralympics were at stake. By achieving gold, and in some cases silver, many athletes managed to place themselves towards participation. The Dutch women of wheelchair basketball managed to qualify directly for Paris by winning.

Proud

Founder of the EPC and general director of Team TOC Eric Kersten looks back on the first edition with pride. "The idea was to bring several sports together in one location and thus, for those sports, ensure that the sum up would be greater than the sum of the parts. Well, 1 plus 1 was not 3. Nor was it 10. But maybe even 25. We hear this everywhere. From sports federations, from coaches, from visitors, but especially from athletes. And that is heartening. Because these athletes deserve that."

Gold for the Netherlands

For the Dutch participants in the #EPC2023, it was a successful edition. In total, the Netherlands achieved 33 medals: 17 gold, 10 silver and six bronze. The gold was distributed among athletes from boccia, wheelchair tennis, wheelchair basketball and para cycling. Where some were already real contenders, others managed to amaze visitors by winning medals.

Top sport

The aim of the event was partly to showcase parasports to the public, demonstrating that these too are truly top-class sports. With hours of training beforehand and athletes who can go to their maximum to get the win.

More audience

Combining the different European Championships into one event tapped into a larger audience to visit the event. After the end of a match of 1 particular sport, visitors often paid a visit to one of the other sports present. In this way, sports benefited from each other and athletes enjoyed the encouragement.