The men’s and women’s handball competition of the 2018 Mediterranean Games finished last week in Tarragona, Spain, with both the host nations’ team winning medals.

Starting back in 1967, with a men’s competition and then joined in 1979 by the addition of the women’s competition, the Mediterranean Games have a long history with handball.

In the men’s final 2017/18 Montpellier’s VELUX EHF Champions League winner Mohamed Soussi and Skander Zaied – one of the stars of the 2017 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship in Algeria – could not guide their Tunisia side to gold in the final as SEHA League’s 2017/18 top-scorer Halil Jaganjac grabbed five and teammate David Mandic six, to top score and take the honours for Croatia, who won all their games in Tarragona, including a semi-final victory over the Spanish men (31:29).

Defending men’s champions Egypt finished bottom of their preliminary group to exit the competition at the earliest stage.

The women’s title holders did not fare much better, as Serbia finished eighth out of 10 teams after winning just one of their group games and then losing the 7/8 Placement Match against Portugal 31:30. Last place went to the young Egyptian side who left Tarragona direct for Debrecen, where they took part in the 2018 IHF Women’s Junior World Championship.

However, the Spanish women did provide the home fans inside the 5,000-capacity Catalunya Sports Palace (Campclar Sports Palace) something to cheer about in the final as they beat Montenegro 27:23 in the final. This followed a semi-final 28:24 win over FYR Macedonia and four wins out of four in their preliminary group.

The next Mediterranean Games – the 19th edition – will be held in Oran, Algeria in 2021.

1 Gold – Croatia (CRO)

2 Silver – Tunisia (TUN)

3 Bronze – Spain (ESP)

4 Turkey (TUR)

5 Slovenia (SLO)

6 Portugal (POR)

7 Algeria (ALG)

8 Serbia (SRB)

9-13 Montenegro (MNE), Italy (ITA), Greece (GRE), Egypt (EGY)

1 Gold – Spain (ESP)

2 Silver – Montenegro (MNE)

3 Bronze – Slovenia (SLO)

4 FYR Macedonia (MKD)

5 Turkey (TUR)

6 Italy (ITA)

7 Portugal (POR)

8 Serbia (SRB)

9 Greece (GRE)

10 Egypt (EGY)

ESP vs GRE 46:17

SLO vs MNE 41:28

CRO vs ITA 30:26

EGY vs SRB 33:42

MKD vs TUR 26:29

ESP vs SLO 29:17

GRE vs ITA 26:31

MNE vs SRB 36:22

TUR vs MKD 26:31

ESP vs POR 34:22

SLO vs TUN 29:33

CRO vs ALG 37:26

EGY vs MKD 34:29

SRB vs TUR 24:24

ESP vs GRE 27:12

SLO vs POR 29:24

MNE vs TUR 34:21

SRB vs EGY 33:21

GRE vs POR 28:28

MNE vs TUN 28:40

ITA vs ALG 32:38

EGY vs TUR 24:31

SRB vs MKD 29:31

ESP vs POR 32:15

SLO vs ITA 33:23

MNE vs EGY 34:19

SRB vs MKD 21:28

Rest Day

Quarter-Final 1: TUN vs ALG 30:25

Quarter-Final 2: CRO vs SLO 17:16

Quarter-Final 3: ESP vs SRB 35:25

Quarter-Final 4: TUR vs POR 31:29

ESP vs ITA 28:21

GRE vs POR 28:25

MNE vs MKD 28:23

TUR vs EGY 41:30

5-8 Placement Matches – Round 1

ALG vs POR 32:33

SLO vs SRB 33:26

SLO vs GRE 29:24

ITA vs POR 28:31

SRB vs TUR 32:33

MKD vs EGY 26:21

Semi-Final 1: TUN vs TUR 28:21

Semi-Final 2: ESP vs CRO 29:31

Semi-Final 1: MNE vs SLO 26:23

Semi-Final 2: ESP vs MKD 28:24

5-6 Placement Match: ITA vs TUR 22:27

7-8 Placement Match: POR vs SRB 31:30

5-6 Placement Match: POR vs SLO 25:31

7-8 Placement Match: ALG vs SRB 30:28

Bronze Medal (3/4 Placement Match): SLO vs MKD 30:29

Gold Medal/Final: ESP vs MNE 27:23

Bronze Medal (3/4 Placement Match): ESP vs TUR 30:19

Gold Medal/Final: TUN vs CRO 23:24

All results, group standings and match bracket can be found HERE for men’s and HERE for women’s.