MADRID 13 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish men’s handball team will face “a new challenge” this week with the dispute, starting on Thursday, of the World Cup in Denmark, Norway and Croatia, where it will once again give “everything” in search of being among the best again. supported by its “fighting capacity” that it has been showing in recent years.
The headquarters of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) hosted this Monday the farewell ceremony of the ‘Hispanics’ towards the World Championship that begins this Tuesday and where Jordi Ribera’s team will try to add one more medal after being bronze in the last two editions.
“We have just started a spectacular 2025 and finished a spectacular 2024 where our team won that Olympic bronze. We have had an exciting TIE, but from the 16th, a new challenge and a new milestone begins, which is to try to fight for that Championship of the World in Oslo,” said the president of the RFEBM, Francisco V.Blázquez.
The leader joked about the transition from “the more than 20 degrees” of temperature that they have had in their preparation in Castellón to the cold that awaits them in Norway. “But the difference does not have to scare us. We are going to a World Cup and I often copy the words of Alejandro Blanco, we are going to compete. We will fight, we will give everything we can, and then the competition will put us in our place. It is not that easy many times, achieving sporting success or always being in the fight for medals,” he warned.
For his part, national coach Jordi Ribera recalled that “one of the insignia” of his team “is a bit of that ability to fight, to adapt to any problem that exists on the field and know how to solve it.” “Sometimes easier, sometimes it costs us more,” he said.
“Evidently, there are also defeats, which I think have helped us become stronger, to push us forward, to know that defeat exists and that it can also be productive and that it will help us and make us stronger to reach the final part And always have that image that there is never anything lost,” added the Catalan.
Alejandro Blanco, president of the COE, confessed to having had “the great luck” of having been in “all the Olympic medals” in handball and the “great honor” of having been “in moments of victory and also in difficult moments.” “I think we have to be aware of what you represent. I tell athletes that you have to let time pass to know what you are and what you represent for Spain. You are the standard bearers of a sport and a federation that is a leader in Spain. With your successes, people applaud, smile, are happy and cry with joy,” he praised.
The president also praised Jordi Ribera and his technical team, “the best in the world”, and the attitude of the ‘Hispanos’ in each major championship. “You are going for gold, I have not heard any of you say that you are going for bronze. With you, Spanish sport achieves the excellence of things well done,” stated Blanco in an act that also served to award Olympic distinctions to players like the Dujshebaev brothers, Agustín Casado or Ian Tarrafeta, former players like Antonio García or Verónica Cuadrado and different handball personalities.
Finally, representing the Higher Sports Council (CSD), its General Director of Sports, Fernando Molinero, attended, warning that “absolutely” the attitude and perspective should change for having left the Paris Games behind. “We are already starting the new cycle and if we think that this is going to take time to reach Los Angeles, it is because we are already going to be late,” he stressed.
“We start in 2025, I don’t know if with the same enthusiasm as 2024 or more, because I see all the federations, all the presidents, all the technical directors, just as excited or more, and all the CSD workers increasing, if possible , support for all Spanish sports federations, working side by side with the COE. We will surely harvest in 2025 and we will put stone by stone to reach Los Angeles in the best condition. possible,” he concluded.