I.Bizkaia Rugby Fives Challenge 2022, Bilbao, Spain
8 August 2022
On August 8th, the Basque Association of Beach Tennis and Minority Sports organised the I.Bizkaia Championship of Rugby Fives. Again, the event took place on the squash court of Sports Centre of San Ignacio (in Bilbao, Basque Country), and eight players participated: Unai, Raymond, Luis, Andi, Egoitz, Mikel, Jan Dabi and Ivan.
First of all, the organisers made four pairs and organized the doubles tournament. This comprised four matches: two semi-finals, the match for the 3º and 4º position, and the final. After that, the individual tournament between 5 players took place.
In the Bizkaia Challenge we use a new format. In one hour we played the two tournaments, so the matches were very fast. In the doubles tournament, the couple formed by Mikel and Raymond won against Unai and Egoitz. Thanks to Mikel’s points, the future champions qualified for the final, where they won again against Jan Dabi and Luis in another close match.
Then five players participated in the individual tournament and the two best players contested the final: Mikel and Egoitz. It was a very intense match, in which both had to sweat a lot. Egoitz finally won after a great effort.
RESULTS
Doubles
Semi-finals: Mikel Maletxeberria & Raymond Manzano bt Egoitz Campo & Unai Pérez 5-4; Luis Getxo & Jan Dabi Romero bt Ivan Cuende &Andi Erromo 10-3
3rd/4th-position match: Campo & Pérez bt Cuende & Erromo 10-4
Final: Maletxeberria & Manzano bt Getxo & Romero 10-8
Singles
First round
Group A: Egoitz Campo 10-1 Unai Perez; Egoitz Campo 9-2 Luis Getxo; Luis Getxo 9-1 Unai Pérez
Group B: Mikel Maletxeberria 8-2 Jan Dabi Romero
Semi-finals: Egoitz Campo 10-2 Jan Dabi Romero; Mikel Maletxeberria 10-3 Luis Getxo
Final: Egoitz Campo 9-5 Mikel Maletxeberria