Having been eliminated in the first group stage, she was left without a ticket to the Olympics

European Handball Championship

The Russian men's handball team experienced a crushing failure at the European Championships in Serbia. She was eliminated already at the first group stage, gaining only one point in three matches, and thus lost her chances of getting to the London Olympics. And its head coach Vladimir Maksimov announced yesterday that he was resigning.

The failure at the European Championship was, of course, the loudest in the history of domestic handball. The Russian men's team, ranked among the best in the world for the past decade, failed to qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time. In order to maintain her chances of qualifying for London through additional qualifying tournaments, she was required to finish in at least the top ten in Serbia. However, Russian handball players took only 15th place in the final championship table.

Their collapse, however, was not a truly extraordinary event. The Russian team, led by the same mentor who led them at the Serbian championship, Vladimir Maximov, won gold at the 2000 Olympics and bronze at the 2004 Olympics, but did not show any more worthy results. The generational change that took place in the team led to a long and deep crisis. At the two previous European Championships, the Russians took 13th and 12th places. At the 2009 World Championships we were 16th, and for the next one, which took place last year, we did not qualify at all. The Serbian tournament was the low point of this decline.

The justification for those involved in it can only be the fact that the cause of the disaster that happened to the Russian team was largely due to the draw of lots for the first stage. She found herself in Group C, the most powerful in composition among all the groups in the first round. Three elite teams competed with the Russians in the fight for three tickets to the second stage - Spanish, Hungarian and French. The strength of this group is evidenced by the fact that the French team, the current world and European champion, managed to score only a point more than the outsider of the group, and entered the second group round with zero points and with extremely vague prospects of breaking into the playoffs.

Moreover, it cannot be said that the performance of the Russian national team in matches with the giants was completely disgraceful. She opened her performance at the European Championships with a meeting with the Hungarians, and with difficulty, thanks to a goal a minute before the end, they achieved a draw. Then the Russian handball players at least frayed the French, losing four goals to them.

And in the decisive match of the first stage, the Russian team looked decent for quite a long time. The Spaniards, who won the group tournament and who after it began to be called one of the main contenders for gold, were forced to catch up with the Russians for about half of the first half. However, their defense and ever-responsible goalkeeper Oleg Grams eventually gave in, allowing the Spanish side to run six goals clear. Subsequently, the Russian team halved it, losing with an honorable score of 27:30. But this was too little to fight for the Olympic Games. The Russian team needed a victory.

It is not surprising that such a sad end to the European Championship prompted its head coach to resign. True, explaining his decision, Vladimir Maksimov emphasized that he was leaving not so much because of the team’s poor results, but because of what, in his opinion, was the lack of attention to handball and its financial support from the state and sponsors.

Alexey Dospehov

European Championships in Serbia

First group stage. Third round

Group C. Spain-- Russia 30:27. Hungary--France 26:23. Team position. 1. Spain - 5 points. 2. Hungary - 4. 3. France - 2. 4. Russia - 1.

Group D. Slovenia--Iceland 34:32. Croatia-Norway 26:20. Team position. 1. Croatia - 6 points. 2. Slovenia - 2. 3. Iceland - 2. 4. Norway - 2.

The teams that took the first three places in the groups advanced to the second group stage.

The Russian team failed honorably