The Cuban men’s team handball conquered the scepter of the Emerging Nations World Championship this Sunday, by beating the team of Cyprus 28-18 in the final duel of the tournament, held in Bulgaria.
The representative of the island, the first non-European champion of this contest, traveled undefeated throughout the previous route, and at the end imposed his superiority from the initial whistle to reach the break with a comfortable advantage of 14-9, according to the note published by the website of the International Handball Federation (IHF).
?? Cuba are the champions of the 4th IHF Men’s #EmergingNations Championship, after defeating ?? Cyprus in the final ? In the bronze-medal match, it was ?? Bulgaria who won against ?? India and claimed third place ? Results ⬇️
Recap the action on https://t.co/lYxJ8E2S0G! pic.twitter.com/7aP45m9HRs— International Handball Federation (@ihf_info) April 30, 2023
As it happened in the semifinal duel against the Bulgarian hosts, Ronaldo Almeida was selected as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the clash, after guiding the offense signing 8 annotations, according to the report party official.
Two Cubans were included in the All Stars team of the joust. One of them was Hanser Rodríguez, nominated as the MVP of the entire tournament, who was joined by Lidier Vergara with the designation as Best Defense.
In total, there were six teams represented in the ideal group, since in addition to the Cubans, two players from Cyprus and Great Britain were included, and one from Bulgaria, India and Australia. The top gunner was the British Francesco Pereira, author of 34 perforations.
In the bronze medal clash, Bulgaria defeated India 47-18, while Great Britain claimed fifth place by defeating Australia 34-22. The rest of the positions were occupied by Nigeria, Andorra, Moldova, Guatemala, Malta and Azerbaijan, in that order.
Cuban handball team advances to the semifinal of the Emerging Countries World Cup
Four years ago in Georgia, Cuba entered these competitions for the first time, which bring together 12 teams that failed to qualify for the World Championship in this discipline. Then they lost in the gold medal dispute against the hosts 21-31, and managed to include goalkeeper Magnol Suárez and center Eduardo Valente among the most outstanding in the fight in their respective positions.
Cuba has been trying to return to the elite of this sport, after appearing 8 times in the World Championship, with an eighth position in the 1999 edition as its best historical result.
Since it was ranked 20th in the World Cup held 24 years ago, a Cuban men’s team has not participated in the world’s top handball event.
Experts consider that the current squad has strength and dazzles with its speed, two ingredients that, together with the youth of most of its players and the experience that some of them have gained in foreign leagues, can return the country to the highest level. of this sport.
