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BEIJING - Norway swept aside world champions Russia 34-27 to claim their country's first women's handball Olympic gold medal in convincing fashion here Saturday.
The Norwegians totally dominated their opponents, justifying their tag as tournament favourites and exacting revenge for last year's loss to Russia in the world championship decider.
The two-time silver medallists set themselves up for gold with an early scoring blitz and never allowed the shell-shocked Russians to recover, laying on a fresh flurry of goals any time their opponents looked threatening.
The reigning European champions went into the Olympic final with a dismal 5-1 losing record against Russia and a point to prove against their bogey team.
Although badly beaten, three-time world champions Russia will take some consolation from winning the silver medal in their first appearance at the Olympics.
Norwegian pivot Else Lybekk came close to posting the opening goal of the match twice, with her first effort saved off the feet of Russian goalkeeper Maria Sidorova and her second disallowed due to a foul.
Centre-back Gro Hammerseng made no mistake with her shot and Norway went up 1-0, notching up two more before the Russians put themselves on the scoreboard.
The final then become a rout as Norway raced to an 8-1 lead, with Russian coach Evgeny Trefilov calling a time-out and yelling at his stunned players to lift their game.
At one point Norway were 10 goals ahead, Tonje Larsen directing her teammates around the pitch as Lybekk and Linn-Kristin Riegelhuth seemed to score at will.
Nothing was going right for Russia even when they had clear chances on goal, with Natalia Shipilova hitting the crossbar and Irina Bliznova shooting wide.
The Russians directed their attack through Bliznova, who scored five goals in the first half, and right back Elena Polenova, who at 1.98 metres was the tallest women on the pitch.
But it was not enough against an opponent crammed with shooting options and Norway had eight players on the score sheet at half-time, when the Russians had narrowed the gap to a slightly more respectable 18-13.
The Norwegian goal-fest continued after the break and the score had blown out to 30-21 with 10 minutes to go.
Holding a seemingly unassailable lead, the Norwegians were content to pass the ball around the Russian area, allowing their opponents to pounce on a rare mistake and score on the counter-attack to make it 30-22.
Even this tactic proved costly for the Russians when Riegelhuth intercepted a loose Russian pass and raced from her own defensive zone to lob the ball over Sidorova's head.
With the game in the bag, the Norwegian defence dropped off and allowed the Russians a series of consolation goals that brought the final score to 34-27.
- AFP/ir
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