Left wing Camilla Herrem has seen a lot of success with the Norwegian women’s handball team since making her debut over 10 years ago. A cupboard full of medals includes Olympic gold and bronze as well as numerous World and European championships.

Despite this success for the team and the players, Norway want more, and after winning the Women’s EHF EURO 2016 final against Netherlands Norway’s coach, Thorir Hergeirsson, made a decision.

“One year ago, we played Netherlands and they beat us with their fast play on court,” said Hergeirsson earlier this week, ahead of their semi-final clash with Netherlands which they easily won 32:23.

“We decided after this that we wanted to be as fast, or faster again – because some years ago we were, and we are now on our way to be faster.”

Helping them get quicker is Benjamin Jensen, a former (1994) IAAF World Junior Champion in the Decathlon for Norway and, along with other sports, someone who has been working with the Norwegian handball team both at home, and at the clubs of the players around Europe, to improve their fitness and speed – something noticeable on court at Germany 2017.

“We have a trainer from Olympiatoppen (the top sport department of the Norwegian Olympic Committee),” said Herrem to IHF.info after her Norwegian side easily dispatched Netherlands last night.

“He comes and visits us all - he came and visited me at my club (Sola HK) and he has taught me some small things I can do better, so we now have this at all of our clubs.”

For Herrem, who has scored nearly 600 times for her country in over 200 appearances, it is never too late to learn, but the 31-year-old appears to have got faster - not slower - as she becomes one of the most experienced players in the squad.

“I think it is something I work on all the time,” said Herrem about her speed. “For me, it’s all about just reading the game, it’s also about seeing which time to start and which time to try and stay to take the balls. 

“Every time we need to be explosive [on court] and we need to train on this every day.  I love this sprint training and everything like this - I love it. I think we are just seeing the results [of this training] now. 

“We have been together for three weeks for Germany 2017 and I think we can see from the start up to now we have got so much better.”

Aside from the sprint training, Jensen also works with the players to train better, and, along with what Netherlands coach Helle Thomsen called “probably the best ‘team behind the team’,” the Norwegian coaching staff including Hergeirsson, along with the players, have found a formula that clearly works.

“We said from the start [of this tournament] that we want to go out with a bang,” said Herrem who has scored 23 times in eight games at Germany 2017. “We needed to be a little bit crazy in defence against Netherlands and our defence and goalkeeper were the main reason for us winning.”

Norway have taken in the sights of Germany, starting with their preliminary group in Bietigheim-Bissingen, eighth-final in Magdeburg, quarter-final in Leipzig and semi-final and final in Hamburg, but Herrem revealed every new place is a chance to set a new challenge.

“A new place presents new opportunities and we just need to see the positives in it,” she said. “Of course, coming here to the Barclaycard Arena has been the part [of it] so far.

“We’re happy to travel here, it’s been perfect.”