SPORTS IN TERRASSA

INTRODUCTION We are two students of Terrassa, a city of Catalonia, Spain. We participate in this project with other four European schools. We’re going to do the project about the sports in our city, Terrassa. It has a lot of important sports, mainly hockey, and also we want to inform about the way that hockey arrived to our city. We want to talk about the evolution of the sports in Terrassa, because they have a lot of importance. Also, we want to inform about the tournaments that take place in Terrassa. A lot of years ago the sports were very different from nowadays. There weren’t so many sports as now. Also, we will talk about the most important sport clubs, mainly for hockey, probably around the world, for example Athletic hockey club, Egara hockey club, and other clubs. In this club trained the most important players in the world, because the Spanish hockey team has won a lot of very important trophies.

SPORTS FACILITIES Sports centres and gyms Terrassa has only got habitants, but this doesn’t mean that this city doesn’t stand out in sports. Terrassa has got 71 sports centres and gyms for the practice of all type of sport. The increasing demand of sports from the citizens promotes the practice of other unusual sports in Terrassa, for example, water polo sport is now a very important sport in this city; and people calls Terrassa as “the capital of hockey”. Moreover, in the sports and gym centres a lot of other sports are practiced. In total 48, for example, badminton, tennis, basketball, cycling, fencing, gymnastic, football, handball, korfball, swimming, paddle. Also there are some centres that promote the sport for disabled people, for example, tennis, wheelchair basketball, swimming and other special sports as “boccia” are very popular in this city. The gyms of Terrassa have got very good equipments and big surfaces as Q-sport Gym and ESPORTA Gym which are the most important. This city uses a considerable part of its territory for sports because some sports need big fields. It is important to remark that Terrassa has available free installations for the practise of some sports, especially for football and basketball. For example, there is a big sport surface in Can Jofresa. In this way, is ensured that all people have more opportunities to play a sport at a level of their choice. Terrassa also has a great number of private sport facilities. Some of the best centres are: Club Egara, Atletic Hockey Terrassa, Hockey club Terrassa and C.N. Terrassa. In the last years our City Council has promoted the sport as a healthy option, mainly for aged people. The sports most played by aged people are swimming and gymnastics. For this reason, in Terrassa, more sports centres have been created. These installations are free for the people because the intention of the city council is to promote the sporting interests and to increase life quality. The city council continues working to enable organisations and groups to improve opportunities across the whole of the city.

TERRASSA TOURNAMENTS National and international tournaments in Terrassa In Terrassa important tournaments are played, but the most important is the hockey tournament, the most important sport in this city. Another important national competition is the Tennis Terrassa tournament and as international competition, the European Cup of Korfball is the most important. The most important tournaments in Terrassa are: The Tennis Terrassa tournament. The Paddle Terrassa tournament. The European Cup of Korfball: in this tournament participates the “Sant Llorenç Korfball Club”, which is a very good team because in 1997 they won the second prize in the European cup. The Cycling Terrassa tournament: in this tournament, professional and amateurs cyclists participate. The “duatló” of Terrassa: This tournament consists in three trials: first a foot race of 6km, then a cycle race of 20km, and finally a foot race of 3km. The European Cup of Hockey “Sala”: this tournament is played mainly in the Atletic Hockey Club of Terrassa. The Marathon of Terrassa: there are different editions for this marathon, for example in 2002 this competition consisted in a race of 21 km. The Hockey Tournament of Terrassa: this tournament is organized by the Atletic Terrassa Hockey Club, C.D. Terrassa and Egara Club. In this competition three guest teams participate, for example in 2003, the Klein Switzerland from Holland, the Menzieshill H.C. from Scotland and A.M.H.C. Pinoke from Holland participated. The Basketball Tournament of Terrassa: this competition is organized by Sferic Club. The Swimming Tournament of Terrassa: this competition is carried out in “Club Natació Terrassa” and in 2002, 422 swimmers from 67 clubs participated and some of these swimmers are the bests in Spain.

Tennis Terrassa Tournament Paddle players, Terrassa Tournament

HOCKEY The appearance of hockey First the year 1908 was created the Ateneo Calasancio in the Real Col·legi Escolapi, and their members have had the idea of practice the sport of hockey. These members were important people in Terrassa’s society and they wanted to practice a sport that distinguishes of the rest of people. They thought first in football, but they believed that it is a sport too vulgar and finally they decided to play an elite and exclusive sport, and they chose hockey (lawn-hockey). In Terrassa this sport was a stranger sport. They went to Paris to acquire all that they needed for the practice of hockey, because they needed to go to a foreigner school to take the material and the regulation. The first matches and trainings were in First the Catalonia players weren’t too good in hockey; the best players were the English because they knew more this sport. In the year 1912 the Lawn-hockey Club Calasancio and the Terrassa FC joined and they formed the Hockey Club Terrassa. The 22nd of December of 1918 was created the Catalan Hockey Federation, and they organized the first championship of Catalonia. In the championship of Terrassa Hockey Club won the championship, and from this a lot of people began to practice hockey, and more teams were created after this. Nowadays the players of Terrassa are in the bests of the world. The importance of hockey in the city of Terrassa First of all, in Terrassa, hockey is a sport very practised and it distinguishes the social class rich and powerful. The more important difference of hockey respect other cities is, for example in Sabadell, a city near Terrassa, the hockey never was practised in it, because when hockey appear in Terrassa, there were economical differences between the riches of Terrassa and Sabadell. This is the big historical importance that hockey in Terrassa have. In other band, hockey has given a very big importance of Terrassa sport, that it provoke that Terrassa would be acquaintance in Europe and in the world, because Terrassa was been the sedate of hockey in the Olympic Games of Barcelona in 1992.

Ateneo Calasancio hockey team The first stick in Terrassa

THE MOST IMPORTANT CLUBS The Atletic Terrassa: The Atletic Terrassa hockey club was founded in the first day of August in 1952 by seventeen young men who wished to play hockey. The first president of Atletic was Oriol Freixa, he was the oldest man of this seventeen men. In September of 1954 the president of Atletic was Josep Marquès, a rich man, because the club had a lot of debts, Atletic suffered a very bad time, but in 1960 this club won the hockey tournament of Catalonia and in 1965 Atletic won the hockey Spanish Tournament. In this year the Atletic had 240 members and it thought about the construction of sport centre, the building works began on 15 of January of 1968 and the inauguration of Can Salas, the sports Centre of Atletic was in With the new sports facilities the numbers of members or Atletic increased in 2000 members. Now in Can Salas there are a lot of feels, for example they have more than 15 tennis feels, 3 frontons, 1 football feel, 3 hockey feels, 6 paddle feels, 1 gym, a big sports hall, and two swimming pools. The hockey players of Atletic began to go to the Spanish team because the players of this club have become in the best hockey players in Spain. Josep Marquès

Egara Club: The Egara Club was founded in 1935, with the objective to foment the most important sport in this city: the hockey. In 1950 Egara won his first national prize, two years later they won the Spanish championship, and in this moment, Egara thought in have facilities for this club. In 1 of January in 1961 Egara opened the new installations. In 1975 they opened the hockey feel with natural grass, and in 1993 they created the definitive hockey feel, in this year Egara also opened the installations of equestrian sports and one gym. In the years Egara won his most important prize: the hockey European championship, and a sub-championship of Europe. In 1991 Egara organized the hockey European cup for winner clubs. In 1997 Egara won the national prize of sport, the most important prize in Spain for sports.

C.D. Terrassa hockey: In 1910, a group of young people of Ateneu Calasncio created the first hockey team of Spain, the C.D. Terrassa. In the 2 of June of 1912 the club played its first match against Espanyol of Barcelona, and in 1926 it won his its first Catalonia’s championship, and in 1933 the Spanish championship. And until now C.D. Terrassa has won a lot of titles. In 1961, the Terrasssa’s council gave a part of lands to create the sports facilities of C.D. Terrassa, and in 1970 the club acquired the lands there it is now, Les Pedritxes. In 1991 the club obtained the prize of best Club of Terrassa, and one year later obtains the gold medal of city. In our times, in Les Pedritxes there are: 2 hockey feels 7 tennis feels 1 paddle feel 1 football feel (7x7) 1 sports hall 1 fronton 4 petanque feel 1 sand feel 1 swimming pool

Mountaineering Trekking, Hiking and Mountaineering Other sports also popular in our city, are the mountain sports, because Terrassa have a marvellous natural park with a surface of hectares. It is situated in Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac. The bigger mountains are the Mola (1104m) and the Montcau (1054m). These mountains allow practicing of a lot of mountain sports like trekking, hiking and mountaineering. They start to be practised in In 1980 a lot of people began to practise mountaineering. It is important to know that mountaineering is the only sport in Terrassa that isn’t foreigner.

Other sports in Terrassa When we talk about sports in Terrassa we usually talk about hockey or mountain sports, because they are the most popular, but in our city also is played other sports. Football isn’t a sport that nowadays is very developed in Terrassa. But it has a historical importance, when it begins with the formation of the Johnny’s Football Club in 1911, which actually is Terrassa Football Club. And now we have a lot of teams, for example JAVAC, CN Terrassa… Tennis also doesn’t have importance in our city, and his history isn’t extensive. Tennis arrived in Terrassa with a club called Lawn-Tennis. A novelty that has a big importance is that with the introduction of Tennis sport in our city, girls could practise for first time sport in competitions. Actually, Basket is a sport that a lot of people practise, but it doesn’t have an extensive history.

BRUNO GALVÁN GARCÍA CARLES GUIRADO TIRADO