Russia, Czech Republic first to qualify for Women's 17 EHF EURO

The favourites showed no sign of weakness in the first of nine qualification tournaments for the Women's 17 EHF EURO 2015 in FYR Macedonia.

Russia and Czech Republic became the first teams to qualify for the final tournament this August after they came first and second respectively at the four-nation qualification event at Faroe Islands.

Russia's under-17 squad was already well on their way to a successful qualification on Friday after they had beaten Czech Republic, arguably their strongest opponents in this tournament, 34:17 in the teams' tournament opener.

They then beat Iceland on Saturday with exactly the same result and concluded the event with a 23:15 win against the hosts on Sunday.

Czech Republic had to fight hard on Saturday to keep Faroe Islands at bay 25:21 and eventually secured their qualification with a 30:29 win against Iceland, which came courtesy of a second half-surge after they had been trailing 13:15 at half-time.

Faroe Islands can find some consolation in the fact that they produced at least on victory in front of their fans as they had beaten Iceland 25:24 already on Friday.

The qualification for the Women's 17 EHF EURO 2015 continues this weekend, 20 to 22 March, with the remaining eight qualification tournaments being played.

From Groups 1 to 6 the two top ranked teams qualify; from Groups 7 to 9 - there are only three instead of four teams in this group - only the first team qualifies.

The Women's 17 EHF EURO 2015 takes place in FYR Macedonia from 13 to 23 August 2015.