WAT end Hypo reign over Austria after 42 years

For more than four decades the Austrian women’s handball league had been very predictable. Each and every season since 1976/77 Hypo Niederösterreich ended up winning the title.

But a dramatic finish to the 2018/19 season has now interrupted the club’s series of championships as WAT Atzgersdorf celebrated their maiden title.

All those years Hypo were just too strong for the domestic competition. Of course in the years until 2000, when they were also a dominating force in European handball, winning the Women’s EHF Champions League and its predecessor, the Champions Cup, four times each.

While their international dominance has faded over the past two decades, Hypo remained on top of everything in their domestic league.

And there were no signs that the 2018/19 season would bring any change to that status quo. On the contrary, Hypo won all 22 matches of the regular competition. Their goal difference was +305, meaning they won their matches by an average margin of 13.9 goals.

So what could possibly go wrong in the two-leg final against second-ranked WAT Atzgersdorf?

Hypo led 13:11 at half-time of the first leg on WAT’s court. But they scored only five times after the break as the home team played probably their best half of the season to turn the match around and carve out a sensational four-goal win, 22:18.

Still, not many people believed that this four-goal advantage would stand in the return leg - but it did. Playing in front of their own fans, Hypo never led by more than two goals and they won the match 23:21 - not enough to make up for the first-leg defeat.



The dramatic outcome of the final was extra special for Altina Berisha, WAT’s left back who previously played for Hypo.

“We didn’t believe for one second that we could become champions. Not at the start of the season, not during the season. But suddenly we were in the final and now we are really champions,” Berisha told Austrian broadcaster ORF.

Berisha was named best player in Austria for a second straight season but will leave WAT for German second-division club VfL Waiblingen this summer.

Photo: WAT Atzgersdorf Facebook page