Sarnecka given the chance to shine

They were some exciting three days for Karolina Sarnecka as the Polish goalkeeper was called by women's head coach Kim Rasmussen to attend a national team camp in Przuszków from 22 to 24 September.

The occassion is worth a mention because it is only a month ago that Sarnecka guarded the goal of Poland's youth team at the Women's 17 EHF EURO on home courts in Gdansk and Gdynia.

Despite Poland's 15th place finish, the 17-year-old's performance was impressive enough to be called among the nation's top players as they are preparing for the upcoming challenges in the 2014 Women's EHF EURO Qualification in which Poland face EHF EURO 2012 champions, Montenegro, Czech Republic and Portugal.

"I didn't expect to be called for the senior team. I was very surprised and happy about it," Sarnecka said.

"It is nice that Kim Rasmussen noticed me. I hope that this is the start of my career, but I know that I still have to learn and work more.

"The camp in Przuszków was a chance for me to watch my more experienced teammates who gave me a lot of tips for future."

Head coach Rasmussen was full of praise: "We have very promising talents and we want to continue working with Karolina. We have a lot of very good young goalkeepers, so the future looks good."

In June this year the Polish women qualified for the World Championship 2013 in Serbia by beating Sweden in the European play-offs.

"We want to continue our progress and keep on develpoing. Beating Sweden was a huge thing for us," said Rasmussen.

"If you want to be among the best, you can't rest on your laurels. You have to set new goals. So the next aim for my team is to qualify for the EHF EURO in Hungary and Croatia."

The Polish head coach, however, is aware that qualifying will be far from easy.

"Our group is very strong. I think that Montenegro are the favourites to win it. Czech Republic have made a lot of progress in the past years, they play good handball.

Winning against them will be very important and hard for us. And we must not forget our third opponent. Portugal might be a a bit behind the other teams, but if we want to qualify, we must win against them."