2024-01-25 14:39:52
The sensational team wants to take advantage of the EM euphoria and win many members. After the elimination, we now have to keep our fingers crossed for Egypt.
The winter fairy tale of the Austrian handball players is over. With the narrow defeat against Iceland, the surprise team finished the finals in Germany in eighth place on Wednesday, thus achieving the best result in history. The dream of the semi-final was shattered. But other dreams remain.
Because the Austrian team, which only ran out of strength in the final phase after five games without defeat at this European Championship, wants to keep the momentum going. Ninth place at the home European Championships in 2010 did not trigger a handball boom; after eighth place in front of the home crowd ten years later, the corona pandemic slowed it down. And now? “We want to take advantage of the media upswing,” emphasizes Secretary General Bernd Rabenseifner, who is also pleased about TV records with the highlight being the draw against Germany (570,000 viewers at the peak). The association, which is organizing the Women’s European Championships this year, is now starting a campaign on social media to get children involved in the sport. The motto: “Do you want to play handball like Mykola Bilyk and Co.?”
An influx is already being registered. We are over the “Corona kink” again, says Rabenseifner. The goals are ambitious: the club’s membership of around 20,000 is to be increased by a third in three years. Investments in infrastructure would help. “Halls, halls, halls” is the appeal to politicians. Further successes for the figureheads would also be beneficial – such as qualifying for the Olympics.
Because Austria’s men left Iceland behind, they kept their chance of a place in qualifying tournament 2 in mid-March. The condition: Egypt still has to escape this tournament by winning the current African Championship. Austria would move up and then play in a group of four for two starting places in Paris. In addition to Croatia and an African team (Cape Verde, Algeria or Tunisia), Sweden and Germany would also be waiting as opponents.
These two top European teams are in the European Championship semi-finals and are fighting a long-distance duel for the Olympic ticket awarded in this competition. Whoever loses out has to take part in the qualifying tournament. Host Germany will challenge world champions Denmark on Friday (8:30 p.m.) in Cologne. Sweden can also prevent the Danes’ dream final against Olympic champions France – this final was last seen at the World Cup and the Summer Games. The European champions will meet the French on Friday (5.45 p.m.). Austria is an interested spectator.
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