All Stars for Legends a triumph

All Stars for Legends took place from June 19 to 21 in Prague in celebration of numerous significant anniversaries of the Czech and Slovakian Handball Federations, such as Czechoslovakia’s first world title won by the women’s team in 1957 and the first men’s World Championship trophy in 1967. 2017 also marks the 60th anniversary of Dukla Praha winning the European Champions Cup (now VELUX EHF Champions League) for the first time, as well as the 45 years since the Czechoslovakia men’s team won the nations’ only Olympic handball medal – silver in Munich.

After two days of activities and matches, the premier event took place on June 21 with IHF President Dr Hassan Moustafa, EHF President Michael Wiederer and 2,000 spectators in attendance as members of the Czech Republic and Slovakia national teams took on All-star sides in exhibition matches.

The men’s All-star team featured some of the world’s most recognisable players, including Hungary’s Laszlo Nagy, French Daniel Narcisse and Thierry Omeyer (both former World Handball Players of the Year), Serbian Momir Ilic and Czech Republic’s own 2010 World Handball Player of the Year Filip Jicha.

2012 Olympic silver medallist and multiple Champions League winner Katarina Bulatovic took part in the women’s All-star match along with six players from EHF Cup-winning side Rostov-Don. The women’s match ended in a 37:37 draw, while the combined Czech/Slovakian men’s team beat the All-stars 39:36.

The women’s team was led by former Brazil women’s coach Morten Soubak, who won the word title in 2013, and former German national coach Heine Jensen. Three-time world title, two-time Olympic gold and three-time European championship-winning Claude Onesta coached the men’s All-star team together with THW Kiel’s Alfred Gislason.

The All-star games were preceded by the ‘handball marathon’, which began on June 19 and saw a total of 1,070 participants take the court over the course of the 42.195-hour continuous game. The match featured handball players, students, celebrities and even passers-by. There were also walking handball matches for elder players, the Czech premiere of wheelchair handball, the final of the championship for student teams, and ‘Handball Hope’ for young athletes.