A
tournament of surprises! It is for the first time in the history of the IHF
Trophy in Oceania that the Competition was not won by Australia in any of the
tournaments.
The men’s
Competition was rather exciting as hosts New Zealand lost the opening match
against New Caledonia 27:29 in Group A. Group B started just as exciting, as
Tahiti surprisingly clearly defeated the defending Champion Australia 26:19.
Until the end of the Preliminary Round both New Caledonia and Tahiti won all of
their matches while New Zealand and Australia also qualified for the semi
finals.
In the
first semi final Australia narrowly defeated New Caledonia 23:21 in a very
exciting match, while Tahiti showed their intention of winning the Competition
by defeating the host an organizer New Zealand narrowly 31:29. The Final, just
as the two semi finals was a rather exciting affair. After showing an amazing
defensive performance Tahiti defeated Australia 20:17 and thus qualified for
the Inter Continental Phase of the IHF Trophy. In the bronze medal match New
Caledonia was better than host New Zealand and won 29:25.
In the
women’s competition it was New Zealand, Vanuatu, Australia and New Caledonia
that qualified for the semis. In that part of the Competition Australia was too
strong for Vanuatu and won the match clearly 28:11, while host New Zealand had
to work really hard in a match dominated by the defences to win narrowly 13:11.
The Final between the traditional rivals Australia and New Zealand was
once again a match where the defences where playing the key role. New Zealand
won 11:7. In the match for bronze medal, New Caledonia was better than Vanuatu
clearly 30:12
During the
Event, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr. John Key had a chance to be
introduced to handball as he attended the matches of the New Zealand teams.
As is usual
practice, the International Handball Federation organized seminars for referees
and coaches during the Event. The coaches course was headed by Mr. Frantisek
Taborsky (CZE) while the course for referees was staged by Mr. Roger Xhonneux
(BEL).
The full
match summary as well as the final ranking can be found on the following link: