Another entry is now written in the Faroe Islands sporting history books: ‘Friday 28 November 2025 – first-ever senior handball world championship win’. 

That win was delivered by their women’s national team beating 2019 silver medallists Spain 27:25 at the SWT Arena in front of a joyous 200 fans who had made the trip over from the North Atlantic archipelago nation to the German town which has double the population of the Faroe Islands.

“Best day of my life,” said captain Pernille Brandenborg to ihf.info, emerging from her team dressing room following the momentous occasion. “It is the best feeling in the world and the best feeling I have ever had. That was crazy. I can't believe it. I'm so proud and I'm kind of speechless.

“It was a dream. We believed in that dream and that's why we achieved it because we dared to believe, but at the same time, we knew it would take a lot of hard work.”

After their opening day debut loss to Montenegro (32:27) Brandenborg was full of positive emotions after the game, telling ihf.info it was “amazing” that she was now a world championship player, before adding with a smile, “let's try it again in two days. At some point of this championship, we're dreaming of a victory, so let's see.”

It has been seen now, maybe earlier than expected, with the Paraguay clash on Sunday (30 November) identified as the most likely game in which to grab that victory, but while the win against Spain was against a much-changed and young team, a key, experienced backbone runs through the squad, coached by the legendary EHF Champions League coach Ambros Martin.

 

And it was thanks to a full team performance against the Spanish that the Faroes were able to turnaround a first half which saw them spurn a number of opportunities to close the score, Brandenborg and her team going into the break 14:11 down and, seemingly, out of contention for even a point from the game.

But something changed in the changing room at the break and in a game of two very different halves, the Faroes won the second period 16:11 to take the victory, thanks in part to goalkeeper Rakul Wardum making 12 saves in that second half.

“Our coaches said that we were not playing up to our best. We could see that we made some bad decisions compared to what we had prepared, and the coaches made us aware of that,” explained Brandenborg, who picked up the best player of the match award, scoring seven times from seven shots.

“I then said to the girls: ‘one ball at a time’, that we need to remind each other that it's one ball at a time. Every time we were down defence, it was, ‘take a deep breath, it’s another ball’, we adjusted, and that was what we needed and what we weren't capable of in the first half.”

After Wardum missed a chance at 13:11 down for a fast-break goal assist with just seconds left of the first half, Kaba Gassama grabbed the ball and sunk home on the buzzer for the 2021 semi-finalists as the Faroes went into the break down 14:11, rather than 13:12.

Wardum ran straight down the tunnel to the changing room, but just over 45 minutes later she would retrace those steps after a heroic second half performance.

“Goalkeeper is a very complicated place to play. It's a lot about the mentality, you can switch it, but sometimes you just need to have a defence that helps you, and sometimes you need to pull something up off your head, try something and run with it,” said the player, who plays her club handball for Ringkobing Handbold in Denmark.

“In the first half I didn't think about getting switched out or something like that. I was just focused on the next ball. I was there, but somehow, I couldn't save the ball. I felt like I went the right way, but I didn't hit it, but I was in the game all the time and fully-focused.

“A calmness came over me [going out for the second half]. It was not so much a tactical input, but very wise people around me told me just to do my game. I tried to go in and do my game, and it worked.”

 

Wardum’s influence was best evidenced in the final Spanish attack as they looked to make it 26:26. 

Following an Ambros Martin time out, the ball was worked to Danila Patricia So Delgado-Pinto who broke through, but the left back saw her shot blocked by Wardum, causing the Faroese fans to explode in emotion, while the goalkeeper ran away smiling, to gather the ball, celebrate before attempting to run off court for a 7v6 attack before realising it was not needed as the game was almost won.

A Faroes time out was then called, with Spain then desperately trying to grab it back and, in the chaos, Jana Mittun breezed in behind the open defence, clapping wildly to receive the ball and then sink home with eight seconds left to confirm the win and send generations of Faroese men and women behind the goal into tearful embraces.

“Rakul was really a hero, she stepped up and closed the goal in the second half,” said Brandenborg, who plays her club handball in Norway for Storhamar Handball.

“A lot of us girls had the ability to take a deep breath and keep going. We knew it would be hard, so it would not help us to fall out of the game, even though we were not playing well [in the first half]. But to come back in the second half shows a mental strength. We've been working a lot of that. We know that we underdog in terms of the size of our country, but also our [physical] size on court. So we know we have to play smart.

“We kept our heads calm and had a really good half-time where we talked about what we could do better, and knew we could do things better, and the most important thing was that we believed in it, and it worked, but when Jana scored in the last second, it was like an out-of-body experience almost. 

“I'm so proud. I look around at this team, and we're halfway professional, almost all of us, and we're working so hard and it paid off. And all the fans who travelled here who deserved a victory. It's the most amazing thing.”

“It's insane,” adds Wardum. “We are from the Faroe Islands and we are proud of it, and now we're showing the whole world that we're proud of it. Handball is a very fun game to play, and we feel that all the time. You can also see this with our fans; they think it's very fun, and therefore we have to think one ball at a time, because we can't do anything about a ball five minutes ago.”

Once the celebrations finish, focus switches to Paraguay, with the South American side the final preliminary group game for the Faroes in Trier.
“We'll see how well we'll sleep, but it's an important game against Paraguay,” says Brandenborg. “We want to continue to play really good handball and try to fight for two more points, that will be our focus next and then we'll see about the main round at that point.”