Great Britain v Russia Women’s 2012 European Handball Championship Qualifier
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - British players celebrate after their Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match against Russia at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace. Despite losing 24-16 the relative newcomers to the sport had managed to hold the current women's World Champions and Olympic silver medalists to a much lower goal difference than had been expected (PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
22nd October 2011 – National Sport Centre, Crystal Palace, London, Great Britain
Losing 24-16 doesn’t sound like a good result. Certainly not usually a reason to celebrate. But after their defeat to Russia in their 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match that is what the British women’s team did.
Why ? Because most people had expected a rout so such a narrow defeat showed how much the team have progressed.
Russia are the current World Champions having retained the title in 2009 which they won in 2007 so retaining the title they had won in 2005 and had previously won the title in 2001.
In other words Russia have won the title four times out of five over the past decade.
Russia took silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Russia is a major handball nation.
Britain is a minnow.
It’s teams have never qualified for the World Championships.
It’s team have never qualified for the European Championships.
It’s teams have never qualified for the Olympics.
After several years with it’s players spread out across Europe trying to gain experience at their own expense the team has only this year been able to set up a British training base, at Crystal Palace in South London.
“Physically we are improving a lot” said head coach Jesper Holmris after the match as he commented on the new centre. “We have a good physical strength and conditioning coach and we can fine tune our tactics.”
“It is the best team in the world we were playing against and the first half was just amazing” he continued.
The game had remained goalless for several minutes and when the first was scored it was from Britain’s Kathryn Fudge and not from the more experienced opponents. The Russians quickly hit back but by half time they only had a narrow 14 – 10 lead.
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Britain's Nina Heglund (#05 / in blue and red) tries to find her way past Russia's Liudmila Bodnieva (#07 - white) and Anna Sen (#27 - white) during the Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match between the two teams at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace.(PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
The second half continued at the same pace. British goalkeeper Sarah Hargreaves made thirteen saves and defensive work during the week after the 34-18 loss to Montenegro paid off as the Russians struggled to extend their lead.
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Britain's goalkeeper Sarah Hargreaves (#01) leaps as she tries to save a shot during Britain's Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match against Russia at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace .(PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
Holmris, whilst pleased with their spirit, would have liked his team to have scored a few more goals in the second half, but their tactics throughout the match had kept the Russians guessing with seven different British players getting their names on the score sheet.
“We’re really happy with the performance,” said captain and top British scorer Lynn McCafferty afterwards. “After Montenegro we worked on several areas of our game to identify what we could do better. We worked on our defence and some of the little mistakes we made, and I think we’ve shown today that we managed to fix things.”
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Britain's Lynn McCafferty (#07 / in blue and red) shoots past Russia's Viktoriya Zhilinskayte (#21 - white) during the Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match between the two countries at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace (PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Britain's Lyn Byl dives as she shoots during the Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match against Russia at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace (PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Britain's Kathryn Fudge (#21 - blue and red) celebrates scoring the first goal of the teams Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match against Russia at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace .(PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Britain's Nina Heglund (#05 / in blue and red) finds her way to goal blocked by (from the left) Russia's Polina Gorshkova (#32 - white), Viktoriya Zhilinskayte (#21 - white) and Liudmila Bodnieva (#07 - white) during the Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match between the two teams at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace .(PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Coaches and players on the Russian bench watch the Women's 2012 European Handball Championship Handball qualification match against Britain at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace (PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Britain's Kathryn Fudge (#21 / in blue and red) watches as Russia's goalkeeper Victoriya Kalinina blocks her shot during the Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match against Russia at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace (PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Britain's Yvonne Leuthold (#13 / in blue and red) is held back as she tries to chase the ball during the Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match against Russia at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace.(PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Britain's Lynn McCafferty prepares to pass during the Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match against Russia at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace (PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
22 OCT 2011 - LONDON, GBR - Russia's Head Coach, Evgeny Trefilov, offers some advice to his team during the Women's 2012 European Handball Championship qualification match against Britain at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace.(PHOTO (C) NIGEL FARROW)
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