Today our Inspirational Wednesday is a bit different. Usually we present inspiring athletes, but today we will focus on the whole national team!
Heroes on carts sent a bronze salute last Sunday to homeland Slovenia. The Slovenian wheelchair handball team won the bronze medal at the World Championship in Egypt.
“We went to Egypt with an excellent feeling, but the extraordinary energy that reigned in the team is hard to describe. When we arrived in Cairo, things turned upside down, because, as I said before the trip, we didn’t have any videos or any other tangible information about how our competition plays wheelchair handball,” recalls coach Tone days before leaving for the land of the pharaohs.
The Slovenian team was put in an ungrateful position immediately after arriving in Cairo. “The team adapted to all situations, on and off the field. We immediately adopted the tactical changes that were necessary. We trained on the floor for a month and a half, but in Egypt we were awaited by artificial mass or rubber, which required a completely different way of playing and a different arrangement of players. In such conditions, unfortunately, not everyone was able to get the minutes on the field that we wanted to guarantee them before the start of the competition. Only really fast players were able to move successfully on the base,” revealed the Slovenian coach and at the same time praised the contribution of Jovita Jeglič in the goalkeeper’s game, which also required certain adjustments.
And what was it that tipped the scales on the Slovenian side in the bronze medal match? “It may sound pathetic, but throughout the game we were all on the verge of happiness and on the verge of tears. Our advantage over the others was certainly that we had two women in the team, who played a completely male game”. Wheelchair handball can be played by people of both sexes, with the rule that each team must contain at least one woman. Slovenia joined the world elite with two!
Congratualtions for winning the bronze, Slovenian team!
Source: http://www.rokometna-zveza.si/si/novice/2022/09/10162-Junaki-na-vozickih-poslali-bronasti-pozdrav
