UNITED KINGDOM: LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 - Reactions after France win a tight men's handball final 22-21 against Sweden to retain their title

Record ID: 860218

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 - Reactions after France win a tight men's handball final 22-21 against Sweden to retain their title
  • Date: 13th August 2012
  • Summary: CHILDREN IN WIGS WITH FRENCH COLOURS
  • Embargoed: 28th August 2012 13:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA3MDMR5BIDN8I0CULAZAALPQL1
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  • Story Text: France became the first men's handball team to defend their Olympic title when their 22-21 win consigned Sweden to a fourth Games final defeat in London on Sunday (August 12).
    It was France's second triumph having first clinched the title in Bejing four years ago and their third Olympic medal after bagging bronze in 1992.
    Fans streamed out of the larger capacity Basketball Arena in London's Olympic Park after the final with Swedish fans disappointed that their team could not catch up with France.

    "It was very very very good," said Larissa Bilodot, a Swedish fan from Paris. "It was really great, the French really deserved it, they really deserved to be Olympic champions. They really played well but Sweden played well too and there you go, I am really happy to be able to be here at all."
    French fans Mathieu Andre and Henrique Pieres from Paris waved their flags and declared France the better team on the day.

    "We are the best," they chanted. "We gave a really nice picture of the sport and that what France is about," they said. "Bravo for Sweden, bravo for Sweden but we are the best, the best."
    The Swedes, who were competing in their first Games since 2000 when they finished with a silver medal for a third straight Olympics, had no answer to the world champions' superiority in all departments throughout the encounter. When the Swedes scored the French seemed to come straight back with a response.

    "It was a fantastic match, they were very close to making it," said Frederick Plyrh from Stockholm. "They did incredibly well. I was hoping they would win, it was an open game until the last seconds. We had our hopes up but the French played really well. It is the Olympic Games, it is the atmosphere, not just the winning team."
    The match disappointed Andreas from Stockholm who said some of the Swedish players just did not get going.

    "Sickening, bad. Sickening, bad," he said. "Our nine-metre players don't even score, they only got two goals."
    The handball final was one of the last events in the Olympic Park with preparations taking place in the stadium for the closing ceremony.
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