They did it again: The Bulgarian women fulfilled their dream of their “triple trophy” by winning the IHF Trophy in Larissa, Greece. In 2012 they had taken the continental title already, followed by winning the Intercontinental IHF Trophy in Monterey, Mexico, in January – and now they clinched their berth again for the next edition of the Intercontinental IHF Trophy as European representatives.
Being the only team to win all five respective matches in the tournament, Bulgaria clearly deserved to win the trophy. After three victories in the preliminary round over Israel, Estonia and Armenia, the defending champions beat Belgium in the semi-final after a brilliant first half (16:6) by a quite close 27:23 and then left Israel in the final chanceless behind by a comprehensive 34:23 (14:8) win. Bulgarian Elizabeth Omoregie scored ten goals in the final and was awarded later Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
IHF Trophy host Greece had topped their preliminary round group and were the favourites in the second semi-final, but then cried bitter tears: Israel beat them after a penalty shoot-out 24:23, after the first 60 minutes had been equal (20:20). But the Greek team recovered quite quick from this unlucky defeat and took the third place by beating Belgium 23:16 (14:7) in the bronze final in Larissa. Before Latvia had won the neighbours’ duel with Estonia to finish fifth, while Moldova were the winners of the 7/8 placement match.
Result summary:
Semi-finals:
Greece – Israel 23:24 (20:20, 13:11) after penalty shoot-out
Bulgaria – Belgium 27:23 (16:6)
Bronze final:
Greece – Belgium 23:16 (14:7)
Final:
Bulgaria – Israel 34:23 (14:8)
Placement round 5-8:
Latvia – Armenia 33:13 (19:3)
Estonia – Moldova 27:22 (14:9)
Placement match 7/8:
Armenia – Moldova 20:27 (13:13)
Placement match 5/6:
Latvia – Estonia 22:19 (9:9)
Final ranking:
1. Bulgaria
2. Israel
3. Greece
4. Belgium
5. Latvia
6. Estonia
7. Moldova
8. Armenia