Final Standings

Place	Country	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Latvia	5	5	0	0	181	105	10
2	Estonia	5	3	0	2	139	122	6
3	Moldova	5	3	0	2	150	122	6
4	Cyprus	5	3	0	2	172	107	6
5	Luxembourg	5	3	0	2	171	99	6
6	Armenia	5	2	0	3	113	183	4
7	Malta	5	1	0	4	92	182	2
8	Ireland	5	0	0	5	80	212	0

Reference: Compiled from Results & Table in [1]

Group Stage Results

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2
		Group A
26.12.2001	15:30	Luxembourg	49	Malta	12
26.12.2001	19:00	Latvia	35	Estonia	23
27.12.2001	13:00	Estonia	24	Luxembourg	19
27.12.2001	19:00	Malta	13	Latvia	43
28.12.2001	15:00	Estonia	43	Malta	13
28.12.2001	19:00	Latvia	37	Luxembourg	27
		Group B
26.12.2001	13:30	Cyprus	43	Armenia	13
26.12.2001	20:45	Moldova	35	Ireland	13
27.12.2001	15:00	Ireland	15	Cyprus	53
27.12.2001	17:00	Armenia	22	Moldova	43
28.12.2001	13:00	Cyprus	27	Moldova	25
28.12.2001	17:00	Armenia	35	Ireland	22

Reference: [1]

Group Stage Tables

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Group A
*Latvia	3	3	0	0	115	63	6
*Estonia	3	2	0	1	90	67	4
Luxembourg	3	1	0	2	95	73	2
Malta	3	0	0	3	38	135	0
Group B
*Cyprus	3	3	0	0	123	53	6
*Moldova	3	2	0	1	103	62	4
Armenia	3	1	0	2	70	108	2
Ireland	3	0	0	3	50	123	0

Reference: [1]

Finals & Placement Matches

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2
		Cross Matches
29.12.2001	13:00	Luxembourg	57	Ireland	9
29.12.2001	15:00	Armenia	26	Malta	22
		Semi-Finals
29.12.2001	17:00	Latvia	35	Moldova	20
29.12.2001	19:00	Cyprus	24	Estonia	27
		7th-8th Place
30.12.2001	09:30	Ireland	21	Malta	32
		5th-6th Place
30.12.2001	11:30	Luxembourg	53	Armenia	17
		3rd-4th Place
30.12.2001	13:30	Moldova	27	Cyprus	25
		Final
30.12.2001	15:30	Latvia	31	Estonia	22

Reference: [1]

Report

The Men’s Challenge Trophy was the European Handball Federations competition for emerging Nations. Having competed with club sides & countries like Greenland in the mid-1990s, Ireland entered this competition for the first time in 1999.

In Ireland’s second time entering the competition in 2001, they found the task even harder than in 1999, with newly independent countries like Estonia & Latvia, where the sport has been played for decades, dominating.

Ireland and Malta (the only team they beat in 1999) were outclassed by the more established emerging nations, and again met in the last placement match, where this tome Malta won 32-21, leaving Ireland with a record of 5 losses from 5 matches.

About

Olympic Handball, sometimes called Team Handball or European Handball, is a team sport similar to Indoor Soccer or Futsal, except hands are used rather than feet.

The object of the sport is to pass the ball using only the hands in order to get into a semi-circle around the opposing teams goal, where a shot may be taken. Each score counts as one goal, and the court is the exact same as a Futsal court indeed Futsal was invented as an Indoor version of Soccer, using the Olympic Handball court.

The sport was invented in Germany & Northern Europe at the end of the 19th Century & beginning of the 20th Century.

References

Websites

[1] European Handball Federation (2018) 2001 Men’s Challenge Trophy [Internet] Available from: http://www.eurohandball.com/trophy/men/2001/round/1/Final+Round [Accessed 25 October 2018]

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Alan Delaney.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish, North American & World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 26 September 2019

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2019

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Resereved.