Cementos La Union Ribarroja – the Queens of Spain

The era of Cementos

Cementos La Union Ribarroja won the Spanish Championship title for the second season in a row to dominate women’s handball in Spain. After many successful years, coach Cristina Mayo and Astroc Sagunto have to face that their beautiful period has come to an end. A new era has begun: that of Gregorio Garcia and his team, Cementos La Union Ribarroja.

Double triumph

Last year, Ribarroja have won the Spanish Championship and the Spanish Cup title. This season they again managed to win two competitions again, but this time the Spanish Championship and the Spanish Super Cup. They were very close to win the Spanish Cup as well, but they lost in the final against Bera Bera. In fact, the opponents had the advantage of playing against tired handballers who had many games in the European and domestic competitions.

Ribarroja won the Spanish Championship with 47 points. They had a two-point advantage over Astroc Sagunto and four points over Elda. Accordingly, Ribarroja will play the CL next season, while Astroc Sagunto still have to qualify for the group stage. Just one fact proves that Ribarroja fully deserve the victory: they remained in the first position for the entire season.

Writing history

In the season 2005/2006 Cementos won the Spanish Championship for the first time in the club’s history. This season they were able to defend their title also for the first time. No doubt: Maru Sanchez, Rocio Guerola, Elena Marti, Tihana Saric, Tanja Medved, Patricia Alonso and Martha Mangue formed the best Spanish line-up in season 2006/2007.

Preparation for the new season

Now, the teams are preparing for the new season with new objectives. Astroc will try to achieve more this year and they have signed Isabel Ortuño, Spanish international who spent the last two seasons at Danish Viborg.*

* Please note that at the time of publishing the article, the EHF Transfer Department could not confirm the transfer of Isabel Ortuño as no official request has been lodged so far. The transfer rumour comes from our journalist specialized in local handball news.