Dear Handball Friends, The International Handball Federation is delighted to be back in Croatia. We all still remember the high level of organization, when the Croatian Handball Federation had been hosting the 2003 Women’s World Championship and the 2009 Men’s World Championship. This time, the women will again be in the focus – and recent events have shown that Croatian women’s handball is managing its way out of the dark straight into the spotlight – as recently proved in London, when Croatia reached the women’s quarter-finals of the 2012 Olympic Games. Now the rising stars of women’s elite handball will compete in the cities of Koprivnica, Dugo Selo, Zagreb and Čakovec at another major event, the IHF Women’s Junior (U20) World Championship.To organize a World Championship will bring handball in the focus of fans, sponsors and media –and I hope this competition will be another great step for the development of handball in the hosting country and in the other 23 participating nations.