Time for Europe’s youths to shine in Sweden

18 of Europe’s top women’s youth teams gather in the Swedish city of Gothenburg for five days of brilliant handball action at the Women’s 18 European Open on 30 June to 4 July.

It is the tenth occasion the European Open is taking place since the inaugural tournament in 2005 and at the same time the fifth edition for the women's event as male teams take to the
court in odd years, while it is the women's teams' turn in even years.

Organisers are the European Handball Federation together with the Swedish Handball Federation and Swedish handball club, IK Sävehof.

As in every year since 2005, the European Open take place at the same time as the Partille Cup, Europe's largest youth handball festival.

The venues selected for the European Open are well known handball arenas: While the preliminary round as well as the main, intermediate and challenge rounds will take place at either the 2,000-capacity Lisebergshalle or the 800-seater Valhalla, the placement matches and the finals give the teams a chance to play at the Scandinavium, which seats up to 6,000 spectators.

Historic participation

This will also be a first in the handball world, as we see Kosovo take part in an international competition for the first time. Slovakia will be their opening opponents on Monday.

Eight of Europe’s 13 representatives at the Women’s Youth World Championship in FYR Macedonia later in the summer will be taking part, which guarantees some spectacular handball as the teams prepare to take on the rest of the world.

All three medallists from 2012 are back, with champions Norway, runners-up Russia and bronze medal winners Czech Republic looking to emulate the achievements of their older compatriots.

Home side Sweden will be going into the tournament full of confidence following their Women’s 17 EHF EURO campaign last summer in Poland, where they defeated Russia in the final.

All matches and all results are available via eurohandball.com.