Placement round 9 – 16

13:00: Norway – Russia 41:40, 35:35 (20:14)

Norway win an exciting match

Already the first placement match for the places 9 to 16 was very tight. After 70 really thrilling minutes Norway beat Russia 41:40 and will go for the placement matches 9 – 12, while Russia will have to play for the places 13 – 16. During the first half the team of Norway was obviously the stronger one and it looked like they would win the match easily, by leading 20:14. But after the break the Russia woke up and came closer goal by goal whereas Norway squandered their comfortable lead. At the end of the normal playing time of 60 minutes, the result was a draw 35:35 and extra time had to decide about the winner of this match. Even though both competitors were almost on eye level, it was Norway scoring the decisive goal. Best scorer of this match was Thomas Kristensen (Norway), who scored eight goals. Andrey Bespalov and Ruslan Parshutin were the best players of Russia with each seven goals. 

Placement match 23 – 24

14:00: Venezuela – Benin 18:28 (7:12)

Benin: Last match – first victory

Benin said good bye with a victory. In their last match during this Junior World Championship Benin increased their performance with their surprising defeat against Canada on yesterday. The West African team won against Venezuela clearly with 28:18 and is 23rd in the final result of this tournament. Venezuela however, lost even the last match so that the South America representative is 24th and last in the overall ranking. After the first 30 minutes Benin was in the lead with 12:7, but the best period of the African team lasted only until the beginning of the second half when they were in advance with 10 goals (17:7). The match was pre-decided and Benin reduced their efforts a little. In the end it was a clear victory for Benin. Best scorer for the Africans was Isidore Sina with eleven Goals, best shooter of Venezuela was David Contreras with five goals.