Throughout the day, across all four venues, young handball fans attended Preliminary Round matches as part of the Germany 2017 ‘Kids Day’.

At half-time during the Hungary vs Argentina Preliminary Round Group B match inside the EgeTrans Arena in Bietigheim-Bissingen, a large number of children from local primary schools appeared on court to celebrate the primary school day of action entitled ‘Run free, I play you’ (Lauf Dich frei! Ich spiel Dich an!), a collaboration between the three regional handball associations of Sudbadischen (SHV), Wurttemberg (HVW) and Badischen (BHV).

 

The annual event, now in its eighth edition, started back in 2010 and featured 18,000 children from 400 schools. In 2011, that number had risen to 22,000 from 464 schools and in 2012 it rose again, to 25,000 from 551 primary school. The idea arose from the ‘Girls Handball in School’ day which started in 2009, which the German Olympic Association the ‘Year of Women in Sport’.

 

Today, over 600 schools in Baden-Wurttemberg took part in the initiative with 31,000 pupils involved, time to coincide with the 2017 IHF Women’s World Championship in Bietigheim-Bissingen. The day sees pupils participate in basic training, being introduced to handball in a fun way and receiving a special badge after completing six coordination stations and proving their handball skills.

 

"We want to use the momentum of the World Championship in our own country to inspire as many children as possible for handball," explains HVW President Hans Artschwager.

 

Presenting the young handball fans on court were a variety of special guests, including Narcisa Lecusanu - IHF Executive Member/IHF Representative, Volker Schebesta - German Secretary of State for the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports in Baden-Württemberg, Juergen Kessing - High Mayor of Bietigheim-Bissingen and German Handball Federation Secretary General, Mark Schober.