The handball community is having little trouble finding ways to make the most of the lockdown period, as the past week saw big milestones marked, new milestones created, cooking lessons, and plenty of ideas for #handballathome workouts.
During the week, we passed the one year mark since Györi Audi ETO KC celebrated their fifth Women’s EHF Champions League title. The Hungarian powerhouse, who took their record to three trophies in a row with the final victory over Rostov-Don on 12 May 2019, enjoyed a trip down memory lane and looked back to the pinnacle event in Budapest.
The third consecutive title was a big milestone for Györ. But we also saw some significant new milestones over the last week – and potentially a much more important anniversary date for someone to remember – as Mikkel Hansen got married to his partner and mother of his son, Stephanie.
Hansen was not the only handball superstar with a significant personal milestone this week, as Cristina Neagu celebrated her mother’s birthday. There are probably a lot of people thankful for what this lady has contributed to the handball world.
Meanwhile, the #handballathome training continued. Rhein-Neckar Löwen goalkeeper Mikael Appelgren took us behind the scenes of his running workout.
Veszprém’s Kentin Mahe shared an abdominal workout, with ‘work’ definitely the operative word in this case. Are you up for the challenge?
Buducnost wing Majda Mehmedovic was able to return to the gym this week, and the EHF EURO 2012 champion was happy to be back with the full range of equipment after so much creative home training.
On the other hand, most players still need to be creative with their home workouts. THW Kiel line player Hendrik Pekeler showed how he is using a children’s playground for his training.
We also saw a number of at-home workouts thanks to the Kazakhstan Handball Federation, who showed several of their national team players training.
Over the weeks, there have been many impressive videos of young players and kids keeping up their handball training. For some, the wait is almost over, as this Norwegian club shared. Their players are still hard at work at home, but are looking forward to being able to return to the arena very soon.
From the Philippines beach handball team, we saw some serious air time captured in this still image – and an interesting location for isolated training.
The fun and games have also continued. A number of teams and federations have been asking fans to play guessing games. Veszprém are one such club. Can you name the player in the picture?
Szeged back Jorge Maqueda has started cooking lessons in partnership with the Spanish Handball Federation, and this week was lesson five: banana bread. The EHF EURO 2020 All-star right back might have some interesting options for after his playing career…
TEXT:
Courtney Gahan / ew