Participants confirmed for Women's 17 EHF EURO 2015

A place at the Women's 17 EHF EURO 2015 was at stake for 29 teams who participated in one of eight qualification tournaments that took place across Europe the past weekend.

Final tournament hosts FYR Macedonia are directly qualified and they had been joined already by Czech Republic and Russia who had played their qualifiers in Group 2 a week ago.

By Sunday evening the remaining 13 places had been given away with Denmark, bronze medallists at the Women's 17 EHF EURO 2013, being by far the most convincing team of all tournaments.

On Friday they had beaten France 41:21 in Group 1 - a victory that was followed by a 39:14 against Serbia on Saturday and a 35:10 against Switzerland on Sunday, which saw them eventually topping their group with three wins and 115:45 goals.

France had recovered from their opening loss and came second following wins against Switzerland (33:20) and Serbia (31:16).

In Group 3 thirty goals by Lithuanian Brigita Ivanauskaite, the top scorer of the entire qualification, were not enough to qualify for her team.

Instead Norway with three wins from three and Netherlands with two wins came first and second respectively.

Hungary, Slovenia and Sweden, winners of the Women's 17 EHF EURO 2013, did not give a single point away and qualified from groups 4,5 and 6.

Second ranked respectively in these groups and hence also qualified for the final tournament are Germany, Spain and Slovakia.

The margin for weak performances was arguably a bit smaller in Groups 7, 8 and 9, which were comprised of three teams each, as only the first ranked team made it to the final tournament.

Eventually Portugal, Croatia and Romania became the three nations that qualified for the Women's 17 EHF EURO 2015 from these groups.

The final tournament takes place from 13 to 23 August in FYR Macedonia. All games will be played in the nation's capital Skopje.