Great Britain national handball team
The British men's national handball team is the national team of the British Handball Association ( BHA) and represents the United Kingdom in international tournaments in men's handball.
Background
Handball is the motherland of football largely unknown. Under handball in English usually games like Irish handball and American Handball understood. Here, however, is non-return games that are rather similar to the squash. The name derives from this is that the ball is played with the hand against the walls. In differentiation this is why the sport of handball is in the UK, much like in the U.S., referred to as team handball, Olympic handball.
As on 6 July 2005 London won the bid for the 2012 Olympics and since the UK is automatically qualified as aligning country to participate in the tournament, began intensive activities to establish the British national handball team again.
History
In the 1970s and 1980s, there was already a British men's national team. Between 1976 and 1988, this took a total of six participating in the C- WM. These tournaments were used as pre-qualification for the World Cup and Olympic Qualification Tournaments ( B-WC ). Here, the British lost 29 of 30 games and only once occupied not the last place in this competition. The only victory came in 1984 with a 21:19 against the selection of the Faroe Islands. After the abolition of promotion and relegation system with A-, B- and C World Championships, the British national team no longer came into existence and took henceforth no longer participate in the qualifying rounds for major tournaments. Most-capped player is still Mick Hegarty with 55 inserts.
Establishment of the new national
For the period from 2006 to 2009, the BHA has a budget of £ 3 million, which corresponds to the equivalent of 4.3 million euros, equipped to build a national team. A three-stage plan was thereby established.
In September 2006, eight men (and 3 women) were selected to train at Danish Handball academies in Aarhus and Oure.
A first selection process began in December 2006 with 50 potential candidates who were recruited partly from other, non-Olympic sports, such as rugby and netball. After various training camps remained three candidates. This 3 plus 6 men who were already active in the season 2006/2007 in Denmark, were ( along with 4 women ) were selected in August 2007 to be promoted to the Handball Academy Aarhus.
Excretions (part of the " talent ID program") and there - In a second selection process in May 2007 in Nottingham 4,800 British were in the " Sporting Giants ". The only criteria for participation was the body size that had to be at least 1.90 meters in men, interest in sports and the common dream of the five rings.
This second phase of the " Sporting Giants TID programs " started with 180 male candidates, of which 16 ultimately selected for a training camp in Sheffield in October 2007.
As a result of the " Sporting Giants TID programs " 12 men ( and 3 women ) were selected in January 2008 to further promote in Sheffield or Aarhus.
A total of 30 seats were in the support program in Denmark in the 2007 /2008 season are available, each for 15 men and women.
Other players who were active in part before the competition in handball are spread over Europe and play in a more or less high-class leagues.
Head coach of the British men's national handball team since 2007 was the Dane Carsten Albrektsen. General Manager of the British Handball Association since September 3, 2007 Paul Goodwin. BHA chairman is Stevie Neilson. The position of the head coach was advertised again in February 2009. As the new head coach a few weeks later was presented Dragan Djukic.
In Germany, with Craig Smith, who played the German Oberliga Spfr. Hamborn 07, first found a goalkeeper for the national team. Since January 2008, Smith plays the Association division HSG Vennikel / Rumeln - Kaldenhausen.
In February 2009, the Danish training camp for the national team Cirian Williams, Chris McDermott, Merlin Braithwaite, Sebastian Prieto, Dan Mc Millan and Chris Mohr was terminated for financial reasons. The players were transferred to the German Bundesliga TUSEM food to get there match practice in a professional league.
In the spring of 2011, the decision by the British Olympic Association has been made that the team will participate in the 2012 Olympic Games in London final. In the Olympic tournament, the British left after five defeats in the group stage.
Internationals
The newly founded team defeated New Zealand in July 2007 with 44:8 and 39:10. In addition, England and Scotland played separately in the EHF Challenge Trophy 2007 in Luxembourg. England won against Scotland ( 31:20 ), Ireland ( 24:17 ) and Malta ( 22:19 ) and lost to Luxembourg ( 13:41 ) and the Faroe Islands ( 17:35 ). In October 2008, there were three games against Oman, one of which could be won ( 23:29, 28:22, 20:27 ). On 12 June 2010, the first and only win was in a qualifying tournament with 33:32 on Bulgaria in Crystal Palace.