Three clear victories for European teams and a hard-earned win for Korea are the balance of the evening sessions of the opening day of the IV Women’s Youth World Championship in Montenegro. The hosting team celebrated a clear win over Kazakhstan in Bar only five days after the Montenegro women’s team had won the Olympic silver medal.

Group B in Bar:

Romania – DR Kongo 39:14 (18:3)

Even goalkeeper Denisa Dedu scored for the Romanians like all other field players, too. The Europeans were the clear better team in a one-sided game, in which DR Congo only scored three times in the first half and the Europeans did not conceed any goals from the 9:3 to 21:3 right after the break. Surprisingly the match was quite equal after the 27:5, as Romania saved their energies for the tougher tasks. Best DR Congo scorer was Marie Ndampia with six goals, while Nicoleta Safta hit the net seven times from seven attempts for the winning team.

Montenegro – Kazakhstan 37:26 (22:13)

With only seven field players and one goalkeeper Kazakhstan was chanceless against the host despite the superb number of 13 goals of today’s top scorer Irina. Pushed by their spectators, Montenegro showed a handball fireworks with all field players scoring and an early decision even before the break. With the start of the second half the result became double figured at 23:13, then the distance nearly remained the same until the final buzzer. Stojanovic scored six goals, while goalkeeper Perovic saved 12 Kazakhstan shots.

Group C in Podgorica:

France – Uruguay 38:21 (24:9)

The opener of group C was decided after only 11 minutes, when France had extended the margin to 10:1 thanks to a starting triple of Julie Soulard, who finished as French top scorer with six goals. At the break the gap was already 15 goals, before Uruguay improved in the second half, which only ended by a close 14:12 advantage for the Europeans. Best “Uru” players were the goalkeepers Santos and Modernell, who overall saved 21 shots. Uruguay top scorer was Alejandra Scarrone with six goals.

Korea – Czech Republic 29:25 (16:13)

In contrast to the three remaining evening matches in Bar and Podgorica, which ended with dominant results, Korea had to give all to beat the strong team from Czech Republic. Goalkeeper Petra Kudiackova kept her Czech team in the race with overall 14 saves against the highly fast Asian champions. The game was on eye level until the middle of the second half, before the Koreans went away boosted by eight goals of Su Yeong Kim to the first ever six goal gap at 26:20 12 minutes before the end. Though they improved and reduced the margin, the Czech catch-up chase came too late.