The table is laid for the grand final of the Women’s Junior World Championship in Croatia: On Sunday 13 July (16:30 hrs. local time) two completely different styles of handball face in the match for gold in Koprivnica. On the one hand, the powerful but also fast Russians, who are the only team of this competition with an unbeaten record of eight wins from eight matches. On the other the Koreans, who lost only one match (against Czech Republic) and who play a brilliant 3:3 defence style by now nearly no team could adapt to.

“We want to make history on Sunday,” said Korean coach Kyechung Lee after beating Germany by 28:24 in their semi-final. Despite three final participations in this age category - 1985, 1989, 1991 - Korea never was Junior World Champion. “I hope our time has come in Koprivnica,” Lee said, adding: “Russia is much stronger and has clear height advantages, but we analyzed them intensively and we know how we can beat them. In our tactics the defence is all that counts.”

Korea’s goal in Croatia had been reaching the semi-final, no they even over-fulfilled it by making it to the gold match on Sunday. “If our goalkeepers play as they did against Germany and if our defence works that way, we have a chance to win the gold medal,” Lee said. Apart from the defence system, Hyojin Lee is the key to success. The Korean middle back scored eleven of her in total 55 goals in the semi-final against Germany. Currently Lee is third ranked in the overall top scorer list, but as the two players on the top position - Martina Barreiro (Uruguay/62 goals) and Haruno Sasaki (Japan/58) - are already out of the competition, Lee can become top scorer of the event if scoring at least eight goals on Sunday.

The Russians do not have that top scorer, but count on a well-balanced team including its mastermind Anna Vyakhireva (40 goals by now). But in their close 31:29 semi-final win against 2012 Youth World Champion Denmark it was Daria Dmitrieva, who kept the Russian hopes alive, scoring nine times.

“I think, we are the favourites against Korea. We came here to win gold and we still have this goal in our hands,” Dmitrieva said. She and her team were 2012 silver medalists at the Youth World Championship, 2013 European junior champions and now play their third big final in a row. “We have a certain experience in those decisive matches,” coach Vjatscheslav Kirilenko is confident to be on top of the podium on Sunday: “We are a red machine, going for gold,” he joked after winning the semi against Denmark, but: “Only five minutes before the end I was sure that we are through,” Kirilenko added after the hard-early clinched berth for the final.

After seven Soviet and four Russian titles in this age category to be record Women’s Junior World Champion, the last gold medals date from 2005. The last time a Russian junior team was part of a final, was in 2010, but then they surprisingly were beaten by Norway in Korea. And exactly this tournament might be a good omen for Vyakhireva & Co.: Host Korea was supposed to be the big favourite for winning gold on home ground, but then all hopes were shattered in the semi-final, when they lost 26:30 against - Russia!

Before the final, at 14:00 hrs. local time,  Denmark and Germany go for the bronze medal in Koprivnica. Both sides had already faced in the preliminary round, when the Danes took a highly lucky 26:25 win in Zagreb. “We have played a brilliant tournament by and we can be proud on how far we made it. Now we hope to end this journey with a medal around our necks,” is the hope of German coach Thorsten Schmid.

The final day of this competition will be opened with the placement matches 7/8 (Netherlands vs. Hungary, 9:00 hrs local time) and 5/6 (France - Romania, 11:00 hrs local time).

The 2014 Women’s Junior World Championship will be concluded with the medal ceremony, the awarding of the All Star Team and finally the hand-over of the IHF flag from the 2014 organizer Croatia to Vladimir Nelubin, President of the Russian Handball Federation, host of the 2016 Women’s Junior (U20) World Championship.