The
Caribbean island of Guadeloupe welcomed seven teams of this Pan American Zone to
the Zone Tournament of the IHF Trophy, which took place from 18 to 22 October.
The tournament was originally scheduled to take place with 8 teams, but Haiti,
unfortunately, were unable to participate in this popular IHF event, suffering
the consequences of hurricane Matthew. It is worth mentioning that Guadeloupe
are the current InterContinental winners in the women’s competition of the IHF
Trophy.
Martinique
and Guadeloupe were the favourites to win the competition, but it was
interesting to see the development of their Caribbean peers as well as the level
of first time participants, French Guyana.
In the
women’s tournament the results were not surprising. Hosts Guadeloupe won all of
their preliminary round matches including the matches against Barbados and
French Guyana, while in the other group Martinique won against Dominica,
Trinidad and Saint Kitts and Nevis. The semi-finals showed the dominance of the
French territories, as Martinique steamrolled Dominica 48:2, while hosts
Guadeloupe had a more difficult task defeating French Guyana (31:22). In the
bronze medal match, French Guyana outclassed Dominica 31:5. The final was an
interesting affair, as the two best teams of the tournament played each other.
Martinique proved to be the better team by beating hosts Guadeloupe 21:14.
The men’s
tournament was a mere replica of the women’s as Martinique and Guadeloupe each
dominated their pools. In the preliminary round Martinique saw off the
challenges of Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis and French Guyana, while in the
other group hosts and organisers Guadeloupe beat Dominica and Trinidad and
Tobago. In the semi-final the French territories demonstrate their strength
again as host Guadeloupe saw off the challenge of Saint Kitts and Nevis 30:8,
while in the second semi-final, Martinique took on the more difficult task of
defeating French Guyana (36:22). In the men’s bronze medal match, French Guyana
was expectedly better than Saint Kitts and Nevis (35:9), while, just like in
the women’s tournament, Martinique defeated Guadeloupe 27:19 in the final, even
though the hosts were trailing by two goals only at half-time (13:15).
This means
that Martinique qualify for the Continental Phase in both the men’s and women’s
competition.
Parallel to
the competition, as usual practice, the IHF organised courses for coaches and
referees. The course for coaches was headed by Mrs Nahla Boudhina (TUN), while
Mr Gerhard Reisinger (AUT) was in charge of the refereeing course.
A full
results summary can be found by clicking on the link below: