From 8 to
13 November, the Georgian city of Kutaisi welcomed seven European nations to
the men’s tournament of the IHF Trophy European Zone.
Besides
hosts Georgia, the national teams of Moldova, Armenia, Albania, Kosovo, Malta
and Great Britain took part in the competition, in which the preliminary round
was played in two groups. Hosts Georgia won Group A, after winning all of their
three matches against Armenia (47:8), Albania (55:10) and Great Britain, with Great
Britain being the toughest nut to crack (32:16). Great Britain also qualified
after previously defeating Albania (47:12) and Armenia (33:14). Group B was a
more interesting affair, as it was the goal difference which made Kosovo group
winners. They drew with Moldova 27:27, but defeated Malta with a higher goal
difference than Moldova did, thus avoiding hosts Georgia in the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals,
Moldova showed no mercy for the hosts and already after the first half they had
a 17:9 lead, which they managed to keep in the second half to win surprisingly
clearly 24:33. In the second semi-final, Kosovo beat Great Britain using the
same recipe. They opened the game furiously, played a magnificent defence and
were leading 16:6 at half-time. In the second half, they left Kosovo no chance
winning by 32:22.
Hosts
Georgia got their consolation in winning the bronze medal by beating Great
Britain for the second time 40:27 after a narrow first half (18:16), while the
final proved to be the most interesting match of the tournament. After Moldova
opened the game much better and had a 16:11 lead at half-time, Kosovo
straightened their ranks and played much better in the second half. However,
this was not enough as Moldova narrowly edged them out in a 30:28 final score
line.
Malta
finished in fifth place after beating Armenia 27:19, while Albania ranked
seventh.
Parallel to
the competition, the IHF organised courses for coaching and refereeing. Mrs
Lidija Bojic Cacic (CRO) was in charge of the course for coaches, while Mr
Josip Posavec (CRO) held the lectures for referees.
Full
results summary can be downloaded by clicking on the following link: