The Australian Handball Federation [AHF] wishes to congratulate the Australian Men’s Team for winning the Oceania Handball Federation World Championship Qualifying Tournament held at Wellington, New Zealand during 7th-10th April 2008. This victory entitles Australia to participate in the Men’s Handball World Championship to be held in Croatia in January 2009.
The AHF is proud of the way the Team blended the skills and experienced of veteran players who recently returned to competitive handball, with the enthusiasm and energetic skills of younger players and the available players from the WC2007 National Team. These veteran players who represented Australia in past world championships included Taip Ramadani, Jason Hoppner, Russell Garnett and Karim Shehab whilst debut team members consisted of Richard Ridley, Ognjen Matic, Curtis Eitzen, Mladen Turanjin, Todd Morschel and Daniel Kelly.
The AHF is particularly proud of the way that the Team overcame some difficulty as a result of the inability of a number of its members based in Europe to join in the qualifying tournament. Due to the qualifying tournament conflicting with European Club competition and the OHF being unable to accommodate Australia’s preferred dates, those players unable to participate included: James Blondell [Sweden], Bevan Calvert [Denmark], Tim Jackson [Denmark], Darryl McCormack [Sweden], Josh Parmenter [Denmark], Lee Schofield [Sweden] Ognjen Latinovic [Faroe Islands] and Nemanja Subotic [Serbia].
The whole team which did Australia proud by earning a berth in the next World Championship comprised of:
Player No. Player Position State
2 Taip Ramadani Pivot Australian Capital Territory
5 Todd Morschel Pivot Queensland
7 Jason Hoppner Centre Back Queensland
8 Michael Thomas Right Back New South Wales
11 Adrian Van Bussel Right Back New South Wales
12 Karim Shehab Goalkeeper Queensland
15 Daniel Kelly Right Wing Queensland
16 Jim Varkanitsas Goalkeeper South Australia
19 Anthony Deane Left Wing New South Wales
20 Russell Garnett Centre Back New South Wales
21 Ognjen Matic Left Back New South Wales
24 Curtis Eitzen Goalkeeper New South Wales
27 Richard Ridley Left Wing New South Wales
28 Mladen Turanjin Left Back Australian Capital Territory
The Team was supported by: Katsu Kinoshita [Assistant Coach, Oceania Region Qualifier], Steve Jackson [Team Leader], John Calvert [Team Manager], George Tsai [Physiotherapist], Kristof Frankowski [Masseuse] and Alex Gavrilovic [AHF President].
Having successfully won the Oceania Region title, Australia is all set to undertake the remainder of the planned training camps and activities which form part of Towards Croatia 2009 Program.
The AHF also wishes to congratulate the New Caledonian Team for winning the OHF Nations Cup, with Australia as runner up. Special mention and congratulations to the Cook Islands for the first ever win in OHF competition, to run 3rd with New Zealand in 4th place.
For further information about this article, please contact the AHF Media & Public Relations Officer, Violi Calvert thru email: [email protected]. or by phone: + 61 408 22 77 94.
