The 18th edition of the EYOF included 15 sports disciplines, with over 4,000 athletes and officials taking part in seven action-packed days in North Macedonia.
16 men’s and women’s teams, representing 11 nations, competed in the handball event, but only two of them made their way through the preliminary round, semi-finals and finals to reach gold: Iceland’s M17 team and Germany’s W17 squad.
Men’s 17 EYOF 2025:
- Iceland and Germany topped the preliminary round standings with the maximum number of points, and came victorious in the semi-finals to keep their winning streaks and fight for the gold medal
- Iceland reached Saturday’s fight for medals after a marvellous 40:32 victory over Hungary in the semi-finals, while Germany cruised past Croatia easily with a decisive 35:23 win
- the final started strong with the two teams finding themselves on the same level and entering the break at 14:14; while approaching the last quarter of the match, Iceland stepped on the gear and started to distance themselves from Germany, until finally sealing a 28:25 victory to grab gold
- Germany’s Leo Nowak stole the spotlight with 10 goals in Saturday’s final, while Iceland’s Gunnar Róbertsson added seven more to his tally and finished the competition as the overall top scorer with a total of 43 goals
- in the fight for bronze, Croatia took the lead from the beginning and built on their two-goal gap at the break (18:16) to take a well-deserved win and grab the last step of the podium (37:31)
Final men’s standings:
1. Iceland
2. Germany
3. Croatia
4. Hungary
5. Spain
6. Portugal
7. Norway
8. North Macedonia
Women’s 17 EYOF 2025:
- Switzerland started the handball event with a perfect record in the preliminary round — the only women’s team to do so — and continued their winning streak until the final, when a disappointing two-goal loss prevented them from taking the top step of the podium
- the fight for the gold medal debuted strongly on Saturday, as both Germany and Switzerland were eager to win; after 14:14 at half-time, Germany had a better start in the second part of the match and even reached a four-goal lead in the 44th minute, but the Swiss opponents did not give up easily and took the game back to square one at 24:24 with five minutes left on the clock
- in the end, Germany proved to have nerves of steel and netted two more times to clinch a 26:24 victory and take the gold medal home
- despite only scoring three times in the final, German centre back Mia Fuchs topped the goal scorer standings with 35 successful shots during the tournament, four more than Switzerland’s Lisa Herger
- the outstanding Laufey Helga Óskarsdóttir netted 12 times against the Netherlands to help Iceland win the bronze medal 31:26
Final women’s standings:
1. Germany
2. Switzerland
3. Iceland
4. Netherlands
5. France
6. Hungary
7. Norway
8. North Macedonia
Main photo © European Youth Olympic Festival
