France is World Champion

ByEurosport

Published 14/12/2003 at 20:58 GMT

France collected their first-ever women's world title in handball, beating Hungary 32-29 in the final after a thrilling extra time in Zagreb. Despite trailing the reigning Olympic silver medallists for most of the match, the French never gave up and only

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Raphaëlle Tervel was the first to attack grabbing the first two points for France before Hungary striked back to lead 6-3 after 12 minutes.

Hungary's confidence was then boost by Bojana Radulovics with 6 goals and France would have a gap of 5 goals before half time.

During the second half Radulovics continued to score unbelievable goals but the french began their come back shrinking the gap to two goals difference 30 seconds from the end of the match.

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One second before time out Lejeune scored a penalty to level both team and force extra time and within two miutes France would add three goals to close the match.

Two years ago France finished 5th of the World Championships in Italy but their best performance came in 1999 where they were runner-up and lost to Norway.

The top 5 of the World Championships assured automatic qualification for the Athens Olympics: France, Hungary, Spain, South Korea, and Ukraine.

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