The 9th European Universities Handball Championship, which took place in Antequera near Malaga, Spain, between July 2 and 8, finished on Saturday with the final matches, followed by a closing ceremony. The event saw 12 male and 10 female teams, with over 360 participants representing their universities.

The Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava (ROU) surprised everybody and won the male Championship after surpassing the University of Duisburg-Essen (GER), the favourite given the previous results. In the female final, there has been no surprise, as German Sport University Cologne (GER) beat University of Aveiro (POR) with no difficulties.



The match for the gold in the male category kept the spectators on edge until the end. The Romanian team of Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, which had lost in the groups phase to their German opponent in the finals, has been the biggest surprise of the Championship beating the University of Duisburg-Essen 23:22.



The female finals saw a German-controlled game from the very beginning. The Portuguese team of University of Aveiro tried to come back but couldn’t make it, and the final scoreboard showed the clear superiority of Sport University Cologne (41:30), that ended up being the female Champions.



For the bronze medals, in the male competition the team from University of Montpellier (FRA) beat University of Frankfurt (GER) 27:25 in a match that was also very exciting. In the female competition, the Radboud University Nijmegen (NED) who snatched the gold medal from the Akdeniz University (TUR) by a wide margin (16:33). The Dutch girls celebrated their victory tirelessly with their families and friends that had been cheering them from the very beginning of the championship.



The organisers secured live webstreaming and diligently reported on the event and all the matches also through social media, combining that with the new EUSA result management system, everyone could follow the event and keep track of the competition. EUSA’s partnership with the European Handball Federation (EKF) traditionally helps the organisers assures great conditions to the participants, among others by assuring referees through the special clinics.



European University Sports Association (EUSA) was represented at the Championship by its Vice-President Mr Kemal Tamer, Sports Manager Mr Besim Aliti, Technical delegate Mrs Carmen Manchado, assisted by Mr Leopold Kalin. They, together with the local authorities and representatives of the Organising Committee and the University of Malaga, also presented the medals and awards.



Medal awarding ceremony was followed by a closing ceremony, where the EUSA flag was symbolically passed on to the representatives of organisers of the next European Universities Handball Championship, which will be hosted in Bydgocscz, Poland in 2019, after the sport will be featured also at the next European Universities Games Coimbra 2018.

For more information, please see www.handball2017.eusa.eu.