Spain take women’s MHC Mediterranean Handball Championship crown

Spain have won the 18th edition of the Mediterranean Handball Confederation’s (MHC) Women’s Championship which took place in Podgorica, Montenegro from 17 to 20 February.

13 national teams appeared in the competition for U17 players, played under the traditional rules of the MHC which aim to promote development of handball amongst the younger age categories in its region.

Spain defeat hosts to claim gold

After topping their preliminary group, thanks to wins against Greece, Cyprus, Serbia and Slovenia, plus a loss to Romania, Spain qualified for the final where they faced host nation Montenegro, who were unbeaten in their preliminary campaign, winning four and drawing one.

The final started off tightly, with the first period ending all-square (6:6), but Spain took charge from the second period onwards, to win that (5:4) and the third (8:4) and take an overall 19:14 win.

Romania won bronze in a back-and-forth match battle against Slovakia. Romania lost the first period (5:7), but stormed back in the second to win by six (12:6). This proved to be enough overall as Slovakia fell just one goal short in the third, winning 6:3, but losing 19:20 overall.

All-Star Team announced

The host nation took home three of the nine All-Star Team awards with centre back Ivana Savic stealing the show, grabbing both the award for best in her position and taking the overall MVP award. Romania and Slovenia could both celebrate two awards each with Slovakia and Tunisia – who could boast the tournament top-scorer Ouni Nour (44 goals) – taking home one each.

All-Star Team   
Goalkeeper: Sara Selcan (SLO)
Left Wing: Scarlet Spendlova (SVK)  
Left Back: Andjelina Orbovic (MNE)
Centre Back: Ivana Savic (MNE) 
Line Player: Sarah Derca-Pilih (SLO)    
Right Back: Agata Stoican (ROU)  
Right Wing: Diana Stefania Lefter (ROU)    
Top Scorer: Ouni Nour (TUN) – 44 goals
Most Valuable Player (MVP): Ivana Savic (MNE) 
 
Work off the court pays dividends for the future

Ahead of the event, referees and officials attended a two-day classroom and gym-based workshop, led by IHF Lecturer Laurent Reveret.

The workshop included rules tests in the English language, presentations, discussions, management of the game, punishment lines, shuttle run tests and general work on the rules of the game, including the bespoke MHC rules.

The MHC rules of play see every match divided into three periods of 15 minutes each. In each period, the team who scores the largest number of goals receives one point. In case of a draw in a period, each team receives 0.5 points. At the end of the game, the winner is the team which has the most points and is subsequently awarded two points in the ranking of the group. Knock-out games revert to overall goals scored.
The final is three periods of 20 minutes each. 

“It was a real pleasure to be nominated here as an IHF Lecturer. The Montenegrin local organising committee provided us with very nice working conditions and we felt the nice and fair atmosphere ‘philosophy’ of the MHC and its President, Zoran Radojicic,” said Reveret (FRA), who joined the event fresh after finishing at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship where he was an IHF Technical Official.

“All the teams worked together with referees and officials with the level of the tournament a perfect preparation for the upcoming summer events. After two preparatory days, the referees performed well and I can say that, maybe, we have some new talent for the future.”

Final Ranking

1 Spain
2 Montenegro
3 Romania
4 Slovakia
5 Croatia
6 Slovenia
7 Serbia
8 Italy
9 Türkiye
10 Greece
11 Tunisia
12 Cyprus
13 Kosovo

All matches were played at the ‘Verde Complex’ and the ‘Sports and Cultural Centre’ at the University of Montenegro in Podgorica and were streamed live and free on the Montenegro Handball Federation YouTube channel, where they can be watched again HERE.

Photo credit: Stefan Ivanovic