After two weeks the Women’s Junior World Championship had come to an end on Sunday (13 July) with the brilliant final win of Korea (34:27) against Russia in Koprivnica. All departments of the International Handball Federation were fully satisfied with the event.

“We have seen the stars of the future,” was the conclusion of Miguel Roca Mas (Spain), First Vice President of the IHF. He added: “We have seen a high performing level of all teams, we have recognized the quality which will imprint women’s handball in the next ten years.” Roca had “personally not been surprised” by the result of the first ever non-European Women’s Junior Koreans, the only team to break into the European phalanx at this competition: “It is a problem for all European teams to face an offensive defence like this - as you cannot prepare on it”.

From organizational point of view, Leon Kalin (Slovenia), Chairman of the IHF Commission for Organizing and Competitions, praised the cooperation with the Croatian Handball Federation: “They really did a great job. Not a single major problem occurred during the competition. There was no complaint from officials and teams regarding accommodation, transportation or competition - and the cooperation from IHF to organizer worked really well. I give my gratitude to Sandi Sola, the President of the Croatian Handball Federation, and his organizing team.”

For Kalin, one major goal of the World Championship had been reached: “It was the objective to promote women’s handball in this region. The youth of the four hosting cities could watch globally top class players, so I hope that this World Championship will have a long-lasting legacy in Croatia.” And like Roca, Kalin was impressed by the level of performance: “I believe that some of those top talents we already will see again at the Olympic Games in Rio. The quality of women’s handball will last.”

16 referee from four continents - all part of the GRTP programme - had been nominated by the IHF for this World Championship. Manfred Prause (Germany), Chairman of the Playing Rules and Referee Commission of the IHF, was satisfied with their performances: “All those 32 young referees acted as a team, we were something like the 25^th participant of this World Championship. The performing level was high, but still there is room for improvement, mainly in punishing too many steps and in the progressive punishment.” Not a single protest had been filed by the teams during the World Championship.

And the best news from IHF side was announced by Dr. Ahmed Abdelrahman Hosny Ahmed, head of the IHF Anti-Doing Unit (ADU): After taking 44 urine doping tests and additional 12 blood samples of all groups to create a biological passport all results, analysed by an Austrian Anti-Doping laboratory immediately, were negative so far. Dr. Hosny: “The cooperation with the laboratory and the National Anti-Doping Association of Croatia was truly good.”