Bihar’s special Olympics floorball team has won gold at a national championship in Bangalore, the medal ceremony of which was held on Thursday.

Floorball is an indoor game played on a wooden floor.

Eight special athletes from Bihar were selected for the National Special Olympics Floorball Championship 2018 in the Karnataka capital from Monday to Wednesday following their performance in a trial held in Patna in November first week. Bihar beat Manipur in the finals 4-0.

The medal ceremony was held on Thursday. Bihar disabilities commissioner Shivajee Kumar said this was the first time that sportspersons from the state have participated in the National Special Olympics Floorball Championship. “I congratulate the state on the victory. The team practised for a few days but still the players were able to bag the gold medal. This speaks volumes about their talent. I am now going to request the state government to felicitate the sportspersons on World Disabled Day in December,” he said.

The International Day of Disabled Persons, proclaimed by the UN in 1992, is observed on December 3.

Gajendra Kumar (Jehanabad), Rajkumar Sharma (Danapur), Abhishek Raj (Bhagalpur), Vishal Kumar and Shubham Kumar (Muzaffarpur) and Vikas Kumar Pandey, Syed Shahbaz Ahmad and Dhiraj Kumar (Patna) had left for Bangalore for the tournament on Saturday.

Coaches Dipak Kumar from Patna and Namo Narayan Mishra from Ara also accompanied the state team.

Special Olympics Bihar sports director Sandeep Kumar said trial for the special athletes was held in October-end and those who performed well were selected for the coaching camp and finally selected for the to participate in the national championship.

“What is interesting is that all the special athletes earlier played floor hockey. Floorball is a more aggressive form of sports. The special athletes chosen for the state team had shown a good transition from floor hockey to floorball in a short time,” said Sandeep.

With the Bangalore win, the Bihar team has a brighter chance to be selected for next year’s Special Olympics World Winter Games.