France claimed the world handball championship in Malmö, Sweden after a gruelling battle against Denmark. The French Prime Minister François Fillon congratulated the “Experts” team in a statement released on Sunday. It is the fourth consecutive final won by the team.
The final scores were: France – Denmark 37:35 (31:31, 15:12) with equalizers right through to the conclusion of the tension-filled game. Claude Onesta, the French coach said:
This title is a great satisfaction to me – but I have to thank the Danish team and the Danish coach. They pushed us to the limit. I think this was a great handball game, both teams performed in a high quality. And I agree to Ulrik Wilbek: We will play much more finals in future.
The French team is now pre-qualified for the 2012 Olympics and the 2013 World Championship in Spain.
In This Story: 2013 Handball World Championships Spain
The Men’s Handball World Championships 2013 were hosted by Spain.
Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. The capital is Copenhagen. Denmark proper, consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 islands.
The Kingdom of Denmark comprises Denmark proper and the two autonomous territories in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948; in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009.
Denmark has highly developed mixed economy. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community (now the EU) in 1973, but negotiated certain opt-outs; it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the founding members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE, and the United Nations; it is also part of the Schengen Area. Denmark has close linguistic ties to its Scandinavian neighbours.
France is a republic and the largest Western European nation. Through expansion and colonisation in the 17th and 18th centuries France became a great power and still retains territories around the world. It has a seat on the UN security council and is the world’s fourth most wealthy country with a high standard of living and strong cultural identity.
Sweden is a Scandinavian nation with thousands of coastal islands and inland lakes, along with vast boreal forests and glaciated mountains. Its principal cities, eastern capital Stockholm and southwestern Gothenburg and Malmö, are all coastal. Stockholm is built on 14 islands. It has more than 50 bridges, as well as the medieval old town, Gamla Stan, royal palaces and museums such as open-air Skansen.
