The Icelandic national team in men’s handball lost against Croatia 34-33 in its final game in the World Championship in Sweden on Friday and ended up placing sixth. The teams placing second to seventh earn the right to compete for a spot in the 2012 Olympics.
The Icelandic team returns with the European bronze in 2010. Photo by Geir Ólafsson.
“We have to look at what happened. We played magnificently in the preliminary group where there were no easy games. We had to play all games at full throttle. The last two games against Austria and Norway were especially difficult,” Iceland’s coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson told visir.is.
“After that we weren’t as successful. However, in hindsight you can’t complain. If people had been asked before the championship whether it would be good to place in the top six seats and earn a spot in the preliminary Olympics tournament most would have said ‘yes’,” Gudmundsson concluded.
France defended its title as World Champion in Handball with a 37-35 victory over Demark after a game extension yesterday—the regular game time ended with a tie, visir.is reports.
Silver medalist Mikkel Hansen from Denmark scored the most goals during the World Cup, 68 in total. Alexander Petersson from Iceland ranked fourth to sixth with 53 goals.
Petersson was chosen for the World Cup’s seven-person premiere team. He is the fourth Icelander to receive the honor and the first Icelander in 14 years to be included in the team. The others are Bjarki Sigurdsson, Valdimar Grímsson and Geir Sveinsson.
Click here to read more about Iceland’s handball efforts.
