Egypt break European dominance at under-19 worlds
Egypt completed a fairy-tale gold run at the IHF Youth (U-19) World Championship 2019 in North Macedonia on Sunday, seeing off Germany 32:28 in the final for a historic triumph.
The African champions are the first non-European winners of the competition, which has been held every two years since 2005. In the previous seven editions, only one nation from outside Europe had won a medal: South Korea took silver at the inaugural event in Qatar 14 years ago.
In the bronze-medal match, Denmark defeated Portugal 35:27 for the Scandinavians’ record fifth medal, including three golds (2007, ’11 and ’13).
France, who had won the last two editions in 2015 and ’17, finished sixth. And Sweden, the M18 EHF EURO 2018 champions, placed 11th with a completely changed squad compared to last year.
Egypt firmly in control of final
Playing a high-pace game and showing an outstanding efficiency in attack, Egypt took firm control of the final early on and coach Magdy Ahmed Mahmoud Abouelmagd’s team led by six goals (19:13) at half-time.
Also chasing their first title in the competition, Germany pushed hard after the break and reduced the gap several times, trailing by just three (24:21) halfway through the second half.
However, Germany never fully caught up with their opponents. Stopped many times by the excellent goalkeeper Abdelrahman Mohamed Homayed, Germany came up four goals short in the end.
Led by eight goals each from outstanding backs Hassan Walid Ahmed and Ahmed Hesham Elsayed, Egypt celebrated their unprecedented victory, which came just three weeks after several members of the team were also part of Egypt’s under-21 squad that won bronze at the Junior World Championship in Spain.
While Ahmed became the tournament’s top scorer with 51 goals and was named into the All-star Team alongside goalkeeper Homayed, Elsayed was awarded MVP.
Germany were also represented twice in the best team of the tournament, with left wing Alexander Reimann and line player Tom Bergner, while Julian Köster was named best defender.
IHF Youth (U-19) World Championship 2019 All-star Team:
Goalkeeper: Abdelrahman Mohamed Homayed - Egypt
Left wing: Alexander Reimann - Germany
Left back: Hassan Walid Ahmed - Egypt
Centre back: Lauritz Reinholdt Leger - Denmark
Right back: Martim Costa - Portugal
Right wing: Daniel Kecskes - Hungary
Line player: Tom Bergner - Germany
Best defender: Julian Köster - Germany
Top scorer: Hassan Walid Ahmed - Egypt (51 goals)
MVP: Ahmed Hesham Elsayed - Egypt
Final standings:
GOLD - Egypt
SILVER - Germany
BRONZE - Denmark
4. Portugal
5. Hungary
6. France
7. Spain
8. Iceland
9. Japan
10. Croatia
11. Sweden
12. Norway
13. North Macedonia
14. Argentina
15. Slovenia
16. Tunisia
17. Bahrain
18. Chinese Taipei
19. Serbia
20. Saudi Arabia
21. Brazil
22. Chile
23. Nigeria
24. Canada
Photos © WCH 2019 / Filip Viranovski
TEXT:
EHF / ew