Students get their skates on for Roll Ball World Cup

Last month, nine students from Southampton, including two from Southampton Solent University, Seana Hanafin-Smith and Abigail Boxall, represented England in the fourth Roll Ball World Cup in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Roll Ball is a new sport mixing skating and handball with basketball. Someone must dribble the ball when carrying it, and the team that scores the most goals wins. Invented 14 years ago by Raju Dabhade of India, this new sport’s popularity is rapidly rising.

Despite it being their first time in the competition, the England women's team gave an outstanding performance reaching the quarter finals.

20-year-old law student, Abigail, hadn’t even heard of the sport until a few months ago, when she saw a post on the Southampton Spitfires Inline and Ice Hockey team page asking for female players to participate in the sport in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Commenting on the whole experience she says, “From the word go I have made some incredible friends and we have all been on a fantastic adventure in Dhaka.”

“To be on the first ever England women's roll ball team is a huge honour in itself,” Abigail continues, “But to get through to the quarter finals is something else! Watch this space, this sport is going to be huge!”

The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina attended the closing ceremony of the competition, where over 700 players came together from more than 40 countries.

The final result saw India crowned champions in both the men's and women's categories.