PORTUGAL
Portugal are inaugural World & European Wheelchair Handball champions
In November 2022 Portugal hosted the inaugural World & European Wheelchair Handball Championship, and came away as the undefeated champions.
The six-a-side competition, jointly run by the EHF and the International Handball Federation, featured nine mixed teams – seven European teams, plus India and Pakistan.
Croatia, Pakistan, Hungary, Norway and Spain made up group A, with Portugal, India, Netherlands and Romania in group B.
Portugal, India, Norway and the Netherlands reached the semi-finals. Spain missed out despite winning their group after losing a thrilling cross-match with the Dutch 18:20.
The Netherlands went on to make the final against Portugal, who looked strong throughout the competition. The hosts beat India 23:11 in their semi-final and defeated the Dutch 18:10 to clinch gold.
The final was quite even in the first half, but Portugal then pulled ahead from 9:7 at the break to win 18:10. Iderlindo Gomes and Ricardo Queiros were the top scorers. Portugal had already won the 2018 edition of the EHF European Wheelchair Handball Nations' Tournament.
Norway needed a penalty shoot-out to defeat India 15:14 in the bronze-medal match after the score was 11:11 at the end of regular time. Spain – including the second top scorer Miguel Garcia Gomar (36 goals) – finished fifth after a 14:13 win over Croatia; Hungary finished seventh ahead of Romania and Pakistan.
Six players were selected for the All-Star team, with Netherlands' Joyce van Haaster being the top goalkeeper and the Most Valuable Female Player. Spain's Oscar Perales Perez, Croatia's Ante Stimac, India's Javed Ramjan Choudhari, Norway's Thor-Erik Strand and Portugal's Ricardo Quieros were also named in the All-Star team.
