Goalball has been showcased to 4,000 people during a EuroLeague basketball match in Mytishchi in Russia ©IBSA

Goalball has been showcased to 4,000 people during a EuroLeague basketball match in Mytishchi in Russia.

Fans were treated to a half-time demonstration match between club teams Podmoskovie and Avangard at the Mytishchi Arena.

The presentation was organised by home team BC Khimki during their game against KK Budućnost of Montenegro.

The International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) says it took place as part of a project to show the sporting prowess of local athletes and teams named "Stars of the Moscow region".

Goalball is claimed to be a leading Paralympic sport in and around Moscow.

The Podmoskovie Goalball League is one of the most successful in Russian Para-sports.

Seventeen teams contested the competition in the 2017-2018 season.

Russia’s national women's team are the reigning IBSA Goalball world champions having claimed the title in Swedish city Malmö in June of this year.

Fans were treated to a half-time demonstration match between club teams Podmoskovie and Avangard at the Mytishchi Arena ©IBSA
Fans were treated to a half-time demonstration match between club teams Podmoskovie and Avangard at the Mytishchi Arena ©IBSA

The Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) is currently suspended by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), however.

The IPC banned the RPC on the eve of the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro following publication of the McLaren Report which claimed a total of 35 doping samples involving Russian Paralympic athletes between 2012 and 2015 were covered-up.

According to the second part of the McLaren Report, delivered in December 2016, six unnamed Russian gold medallists at Sochi 2014 were found to have had their urine samples tampered with.

The suspension was extended earlier this year by the IPC to include Pyeongchang 2018 and Russian athletes were forced to compete as neutral athletes.

Last week, IPC President Andrew Parsons revealed the RPC has paid more than half of the outstanding fees owed to the IPC in order to have its suspension lifted. 

The IPC is demanding €257,500 (£228,000/$293,000) to cover the losses incurred by the doping scandal and Parsons told Russia's official state news agency TASS the organisation had received "over 50 per cent" of that amount.

It is the last remaining criteria Russia must meet if the IPC is to reinstate the RPC.

Parsons declined to reveal the exact number the RPC had paid but claimed he was "optimistic" the IPC would be given the full amount sooner rather than later.