On August 6 is to start traditional beach rugby tournament in Batumi. The only change is that amateur and professional teams will compete in separate way. On august 6-7 is planed competition among professionals, those teams will participate in this tournament:” Lomotiv”, “Kochebi”, “Academy”, “Aia” from the first league:” Batumi”, “Devebi”, “Jikebi”, “Poti”, TBC Dexus;
Besides this, children’s teams from Imereti (Kutaisi) and Samegrelo and women’s teams from Imereti (Kutaisi), Samegrelo and Adjara will compete at this tournament. During the tournament there will be held “lelo burti “ ((meaning literally in Georgian "Field Ball", is a Georgian folk sport, which is a full contact ball game, and very similar to rugby), which was revived by famous veteran Davit Kilasonia.
On august 20-21 amateurs will hold the competition. It is remarkable that participants’ number grew this year, which means that the popularity of beach rugby grew. 8 teams will participate in this competition, four of journalists and four of veterans (GTU, Georgian Rugby Union, Kutaisi and SEU).
As it is known 1200-man stadium was specially constructed for beach rugby in Batumi. It is located in front of “Centre Point” block of flats and it was built in a finance help of the following company. Beach rugby is summer and festival discipline, which becomes more and more popular there where traditional and annual tournaments take place (Italy, the U.S.A.).
Since 2007 beach rugby is under patronage of International Rugby Federation. In 2006 Beach Rugby Union was founded in Georgia. This year this tournament holds in Batumi the fourth times.
