The GENSB youth tug of war tournament was founded in 1998. The goal of the five founding nations Germany, England, Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium is to bring young athletes between 12 and 18 at an international level together. At the same time it is an opportunity to introduce tug of war to the youth and to achieve international friendships. The tournament takes place every year on the last Saturday in August. In addition to the five countries who gave the tournament the name further nations like Sweden and the Baltic states took part.
Value is set on that all young pullers whether female or male participate and pull the rope. For that reason official rules like weight and number of pullers were amended.
The whole tournament is organized as a low budget event. Each participant is paying a low fee for food and accommodation. This results in a large number of participants. Last year in
Switserland the number grew up to 54 teams and 600 youth.
The event starts with the arrival on Friday and gives the young athletes the chance to get the area, competition field, location of catering and accommodation known. Next day starts with the weigh-in and the grouping of the teams before the official salutations at 10:30. From 11:00 the tug of war competition starts. Some hard pulls will be present since the GENSB youth tournament has almost the same significance than a European or a World championship.