Norway clinch first handball gold

Norway swept aside world champions Russia 34-27 to claim their country's first women's handball gold.

Twice silver-medallists in the past they unleashed an early scoring blitz, going 8-1 up, and never allowed the shell-shocked Russians to recover.

The score had blown out to 30-21 with 10 minutes to go before Norway dropped their defence back.

Earlier, South Korea staged a late surge to beat Hungary 33-28 and claim the women's bronze medal.

Left back Moon Pilhee scored 10 goals, while right back Hong Jeongho chipped in eight.

Hungary made a positive start and led 6-2 in the early stages but a hat-trick from Moon put the Koreans ahead 7-6 after 10 minutes.

Korean coach Lim Young-chul said he was proud of the way his team bounced back after a controversial semi-final defeat by Norway.

"This bronze medal has bigger meaning than gold for our athletes," he said.

Norway were of course delighted with gold, though, with left-back Katja Nyberg saying: "I think I am the happiest person on earth right now.

"I think our speed was the ticket to the gold medal."

Goalkeeper Kari Aalvik Grimsboe added:"Everything was right for us. We are much stronger than the Russians. We just ran from them. We did everything right."

RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Beijing 2008 - handball
International Handball Federation
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Handball from the BOA
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