2008 Olympic Games ended: Good-bye beijing!
Accompanied by the highlight of two exciting finals the Olympic Handball Tournaments at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games came to an end on Sunday, 24 August. After 84 matches during sixteen days,...
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Accompanied by the highlight of two exciting finals the Olympic Handball Tournaments at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games came to an end on Sunday, 24 August. After 84 matches during sixteen days, Norway's women and France's men realised their Olympic dream by grabbing the gold medal. Please find below a short summary of the final matches.
For more information, please refer to our Beijing Olympic section where you can re-live the Beijing Games with the all Olympic handball news, match statistics and more.
Men's final: FRA - ISL 28:23 (15:10)
The great favourites turned their dream into reality in Beijing. France outclassed Iceland 28:23 in a one-sided Olympic final. The French team burst into endless cheer after the final whistle to hug each other on the field.
France proved absolute predominance from the very beginning of the tournament and added seven victories and one draw to their account to win their first Olympic handball gold ever. Iceland won their first medal and have every reason to celebrate anyway.
The Frenchmen overrun their opponents in the first half mainly due to their strong defence and brilliant goalkeeper Thierry Omeyer. Iceland had nothing to put up against this stronghold. The 2006 European champions stole plenty of balls to score goals from counter-attacks. A first seven-goal margin was reached at 14:7 (‘25). In the final phase of the first half they calmed down while Iceland got a move on to reduce to 10:15. In the second half France continued their outstanding defensive work including world-class keeper Omeyer in excellent shape. Iceland got stuck to France with top scorer Nikola Karabatic, who scored 8 goals and showed his best performance in the tournament. France had their chance of advancing to a 10-goal margin but failed.
Although Iceland had no more chance to turn the match they did not give up but fought bravely, as this Olympic final has gone down in Iceland history as the greatest handball triumph ever. They even managed to come closer thanks to nice saves by keeper Gustavsson. Iceland's top scorer of the match was Olafur Stefansson (5).
A 18,000 crowd at the fully packed National Indoor Stadium created a great atmosphere no matter which team was on the court.
Final ranking of the Men's Olympic Tournament: Gold: France, Silver: Iceland, Bronze: Spain, 4. Croatia, 5. Poland, 6. Russia, 7. Denmark, 8. Korea, 9. Germany, 10. Egypt, 11. Brazil, 12. China,
Women's final: NOR - RUS 34:27 (18:13)
Following two silver medals (1988, 1992) and one bronze medal (2000) Norway's women finally made it to gain their first Olympic gold at the Beijing Games! When the final whistle of the Olympic final against Russia was blown at 17.06, Norway burst into endless cheer. The European champions made light work of the World champions in a one-sided match. The basis for their success was their fabulous opening. After 15 minutes played the Northern Europeans had already run into a 13:3 lead. Every ball the Russians lost found its way into the Russian goal through quick and ice-cold Norwegian counter-attacks. Russia got left behind completely and allowed Norway to score just as they like it. Coach Trefilow's team time-out did not help much at first. Only when they managed to reduce their mistakes in attack to spoil some of Norway's counter-attacks, they reduced the margin and left the court with five goals behind at half-time.
In the second half the Norwegians continued their outstanding performance. Goalkeeper Katrine Lunde Haraldsen in excellent shape again kept the Norwegian defence in fine form while the Russian play seemed rigid and without any idea against the agile defence of the European champions. When All-Star member Else-Marthe Soerlie-Lybekk raised the score to 27:19 (‘48) Russia's hope faded away. With five minutes from the end the margin was ten goals. Long before the final whistle the Norwegian bench was celebrating and cheering. Another reason to celebrate for Norway's Soerlie and keeper Lunde Haraldsen: Both of them earned a place in the tournament's All-Star Team. Russia's spirits sank towards the end of the match. Their defence, which normally is quite solid, revealed gaps, while they were lacking concentration in attack. Two Russian players were also elected to the All-Star Team but Liudmila Postnova (3 goals) and Irina Bliznova (6 goal) but could not do anything to make the match turn upside down.
Final Ranking of the Women's Olympic Tournament: Gold: Norway, Silver: Russia, Bronze: Korea, 4. Hungary, 5. France, 6. China, 7. Romania, 8. Sweden, 9. Brazil, 10. Kazakhstan, 11. Germany, 12. Angola
