After two straight defeats against Germany in the quarter-final and Romania in the placement round, Hungary were the clear victors in their final encounter at the Women’s Junior World Championship in Croatia. The team of All Star Team player Luka Szekerczes won the first match of the final day in Koprivnica by 36:18 against an exhausted Dutch team to finish on seventh position.

 

Placement match 7/8: Netherlands - Hungary 18:36 (11:15)

It was an “early bird duel” starting at 9:00 am - and Hungary were wide awake and much more determined than Netherlands. The Hungarians, 2013 silver medalists at the European championship, took control of the match from the beginning and left the tired and resigned Dutch team clearly behind in the second half.

Thanks to their much stronger defence and their back court shooters like Mercedes Walfisch the Hungarians had no problems in forging ahead to a four goal advance at the break. And the Hungarian hunger was not stilled, in contrast: As the Dutch side even decreased their level of scoring and defending in the second half, Hungary even speeded up, and clashed their competitor by a series of counter attack goals. At 25:15 in minute 42 the result was double-figured for the first time and after scoring only seven times after the break, Netherlands were down by 18 goals in the end.

As the victors left Koprivnica right after their placement match the first secret of the All Star Team was unveiled: Dragan Nachevski, Member of the IHF Playing Rules and Referee Commission, awarded Luka Szekerczes as best right back of the competition.