Italy’s W19 team complete perfect run to gold in Kosovo

European Handball Federation

17 July 2023, 10:45

Italy lifted the trophy at the Women’s 19 EHF Championship 2023 in Kosovo on Sunday, after edging Poland by a single goal in the semi-final and coming from behind to beat Austria 29:21 in the final. Poland beat Slovakia for the bronze medal.

unbeaten Italy crowned their perfect tournament, that started with some big wins in the group phase and ended with two hard-fought wins over the weekend
in Saturday’s semi-final against Poland, Italy were never behind from minute 17th on, but still struggled to shake off their opponents
in fact, Italy needed a buzzer-beater by Asia Mangone to finally seal a 24:23 win and qualify for next day’s final
the other semi-final was just as close: Austria – after winning all their group matches by a margin of more than 10 goals – defeated neighbours Slovakia only thanks to a spectacular comeback in the closing stages
Slovakia led by three goals (26:23) with less than five minutes on the clock, but failed to score another goal as Austria used a 4:0 run to turn the match upside-down: 27:26
in the final, Italy did not find the net for more than five minutes as Austria took an early three-goal advantage
however, Italy levelled up the score by minute 10 and later closed out the first half with a 5:2 run for a 15:12 lead
the decisive phase came early in the second half, when Italy had eight unanswered goals to go from 16:15 to 24:15, before closing out a clear 29:21 win
Charity Iyamu was Italy’s best scorer in the final with six goals; Lisa Purkarthofer scored seven times for Austria
the bronze medal match between Poland and Slovakia was still in the balance after 42 minutes (17:17) before Poland opened a commanding gap with a 5:1 run – and ultimately won the match 24:20
Finland right back Isabel Larsson became the tournament’s top scorer with 48 goals, 11 more than second-place Dorota Bačenková, centre back of Slovakia
Italy and Spain – winners of the simultaneous W19 EHF Championship in Lithuania – join North Macedonia and Croatia – the bottom two teams from the W19 EHF EURO 2023 in Romania – in a four-team qualification tournament currently scheduled for November 2023, with the winners earning the 14th and final European place at the 2024 IHF Junior World Championship