5th WORLD UNIVERSITY WOMEN'S HANDBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Valencia, Spain - June 25th to July 3rd, 2002
At the fourth edition of the World University Championship in Women's Handball organized in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Russia mastered the game throughout the entire competition. Logically, it won over Romania. This time too, the level was very high. And there is no doubt that since the discipline has been included on the FISU championship programme (the 1st edition took place in 1994 in Bratislava), we have seen meets between very well organized teams including many national A-string players.
At the time, Spain lost to Slovakia for the third place on the podium, but on organizing the 5th edition of this championship, it was determined to improve its already honourable fourth place. The CEDU (the Spanish university sports association) did a wonderful job to offer participants a royal welcome. The sports facilities and housing arrangements were of the very best. The only disadvantage was a drop in participation with only seven teams present: China, Czech Republic, Japan, Moldavia, Mexico, Romania and of course, Spain. At the opening ceremony, Kairis Lainus (EST), the FISU delegate and Francisco Tomas, Rector of the University of Valencia, gave a warm reception to the delegations that had come from three continents.
Because of the small number of teams, all participants played against each other in a single round-robin. The matches were hotly disputed for the most part and at a very good level except for a few one-sided scores at the expense of the Moldavian and Mexican teams (Japan-Moldavia: 53-13!; Czech Republic-Mexico: 48-8!).
The Bout for Third Place
With a bronze medal in the outcome, the match between Japan and the Czech Republic was very close. The Czech players would take the day as they dominated the match from start to finish with a slight advantage on the scoreboard. At the end of the first half-time, the Czech Republic led by 16 to 11. They maintained that advantage in the second half with a solid defense and very accurately placed attacks against the Japanese goal. With only 10 minutes left and a score of 24-18, everyone thought the game was over when a Czech player (Iva Zamorska) sustained an injury and had to leave the court just before the service changed. The Japanese took advantage to bring the match up to a very close 25-26, but the Czech team stayed together and with great concentration they finally took the third place at 29-26.
The Title
The World University Championship in Women's Handball closed on a final between Romania and Spain. In this match, Romania proved to be clearly better than all the other contestants, and it was not by chance that the team had not lost a single match before the final. The silver medal in Clermont-Ferrand in 2000 had whetted the team appetite. So Spain did not overcome in the final, but it lost against a team with enormous international experience. The Romanians are in fact quite used to playing at top level. Many of the teammates were among the winners in the junior world championships organized in China in 1999. Others had participated in 2001 "World Absolute Tournament". And finally, three were on the Romanian team at the Olympic Games in Sydney. Ionela Goran played "only" one tournament in Italy in 2001. As for Ramona Farcau, who scored the highest point count of the tournament, with 55 goals in 6 matches, she was also junior champion and a member of the Olympic team. With five junior world champions, 4 A-string players in the world championships and 3 members of the Olympic team, the Romanians were sure of their chances.
In fact, Spain had nothing to be ashamed of in second place. The final score of 22-25 in favour of Romania, was fairly representative of the match. Although the Romanians had control from the start, they had to keep on their toes to resist the Spanish pressure. At halftime, Romania led by 4 goals (9-13). After the break, Spain did its utmost to bridge the gap, but never managed to even the score. This silver medal is nevertheless the best result ever recorded by a Spanish woman's handball team in the history of FISU championships.
FINAL RANKING
1. ROMANIA 2. SPAIN 3. CZECH REPUBLIC 4. JAPAN 5. CHINA 6. MEXICO 7. MOLDOVA
GAME RESULTS
CHN - CZE 28/28 ESP - MDA 47/9 ROM - MEX 43/13 CHN - JPN 18/24 MEX - ESP 7/41 MDA - ROM 6/43 CHN - ROM 13/35 MEX - CZE 8/48 JPN - MDA 53/13 ROM - CZE 29/21 ESP - JPN 24/20 MEX - CHN 19/46 JPN - ROM 18/23 ESP - CZE 21/18 CHN - MDA 40/15 MEX - JPN 17/36 CHN - ESP 29/29 MDA - CZE 10/51 JPN - CZE 26/29 ESP - ROM 22/25 MEX - MDA 35/27
