Image: Sergio Betancort
An emotional day was experienced on Sunday morning at the Lanzarote Sports City pavilion. On the occasion of the thirty-eighth edition of the 24 Hours of Handball Tournament, the historical players of this sport met again to play a match. An initiative carried out by the San José Obrero Handball Club and with which they wanted to publicly recognize all the players, officials, managers and coaches who have belonged to Torrelavega and San José Obrero and rewarding their dedication so that handball became the king sport in Lanzarote in the 70s and 80s.
From the early hours of the morning, the players who have made Lanzarote handball great began to arrive at the Lanzarote Sports City. Hugs and anecdotes began to circulate among the players. The managers of San José Obrero began to distribute the shirts for the subsequent match, with the white ones for the Torrelavega players and the green ones for the San José Obrero players. There were those who did not know which shirt to take, deciding to play the first half with one team and the second with the other. Players who had served as coaches in both teams during their time.
The president of San José Obrero, Juan Carlos Toledo, welcomed the founders of the Mahay Handball Sports Club, a reference for handball in Lanzarote and the Canary Islands. Manuel Fuentes Moreno, founder of the club, together with Eloy Perdomo Olivero (vice president) and Rafael Tejera Parrilla (secretary), were thanked for the initiative they had in 1974 creating the CD Balonmano Mahay.
At 12:30 the match between Torrelavega and San José Obrero started. Lorenzo Lemaur directed San José Obrero and Joaquín Ruiz directed Torrelavega. And the refereeing couple was formed by Andrónico Pérez and Ye. Almost 50 players attended this reunion of historical players of Lanzarote handball, playing a 40-minute match.
Orlando, Moro, Juan Démiz, Pedro San Ginés, Oscar, Bati, Pancho, Páez, Pirula, Toñín, Bonilla, Luismi, Falo, Miguel Jiménez or Chechu, were some of the players who were part of San José Obrero. And in Torrelavega players of the stature of Irán, Dele, Alpidio Armas, Barreno, Jiménez, Palangana, Casanova, Coco, Claudio, Domingo Morera or Sergio Morera, among others, played. On the bench, Torrelavega was Chicho Pérez, responsible for the handball section in the years of greatest splendor of Torrelavega. Tomás Duarte was also on the Torrelavega bench during this match.
There were several emotional moments that were experienced during the dispute of the clash of historical players. One of them when the five Robayna brothers (Vicente, David, Miguel, Tony and Juan José) were on the playing field. And the second moment was with the presence on the court of the seven players who achieved the first promotion of Torrelavega to the Silver Division of national handball. A feat achieved 29 years ago.
A morning of reunions, memories and above all gratitude from the fans and active players to the history of handball in Lanzarote. San José Obrero wanted to thank everyone who came to experience this meeting of historical handball players and is already working so that in the next edition the players will be the ones who are honored. The women also managed to place handball as the king sport in Lanzarote.
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