France rose to the occasion with a first ever gold medal in the Women’s Junior World Championship.
– At the Under-17 EHF EURO in 2021, this generation finished 11th. One year later, at the IHF Women’s Youth World Championship, they finished fifth. At the Under-19 EURO, they went sixth. And now they are world champions. They really outdid themselves and played an amazing handball, said coach Eric Baradat to ihf.info.
France beat Hungary, 29–26 to achieve gold, while Netherlands went full throttle on fast breaks with 34–28 versus Denmark in the bronze duel.
IHF reports a key factor for France. With highly efficient attacks the winning team relied precisely on the team effort, none of the players made it to top 50 in the goal scorer list.
– Before the start of the competition, I told my players that they can win the title. They were all looking like me like I was crazy. But I knew that if they stayed true to their roots, played like they can play and be strong, they can win. And here we are, taking the trophy back to France, said Baradat to the federation website.
Jelena Vukcevic of Montenegro produced 74 goals as top scorer. France received further glory with three players in all-star team.
MVP: Lylou Borg – France
Goalkeeper: Klára Zaj – Hungary
Left wing: Matilde Marie Vestergaard – Denmark
Left back: Lea Faragó – Hungary
Centre back: Elín Klara Thorkelsdóttir – Iceland
Right back: Alieke Van Maurik
Right wing: Manon Errard – France
Line player: Lilou Pintat – France