Även brittiska journalister på plats i Brasilien har fastnat för handboll.
Handbollskanalen rapporterar gärna om mediabevakningen och reaktioner på handboll runt om i världen nu när OS breddar tillgängligheten. Ni är många som läst om hur amerikansk media och TV-tittare over-there hyllat sporten.
Nu är det väl ändå dags för England att haka på tåget? Mark Taylor från Cambridge News var och såg på matchen mellan Sverige – Egypten och skriver såhär:
”Handball may not have the allure or appeal of other sports, but one night of action here in Brazil was enough to whet the appetite for more of the same.
In the UK, it is a sport that has a peripheral standing at best – and more fool us, as this fast-action game has an addictive quality.
Heading along to the Future Arena to watch Sweden versus Egypt was in part to learn more about the sport in which Cambridge have a successful team – it is not often that we are able to say that a side from the city is competing in European competition.
And it did not take long to understand the appeal, and then be able to associate that with how we could utilise its benefits on a wider scale.
The crowd gathered in the arena was certainly the most engaged of many of the venues so far.
What was also surprising was the physical nature – there was plenty of man-handling, jostling and tussling going on from both sides throughout the game, but never once an aggressive reaction or retaliation.
This level of contact in many other sports would almost certainly lead to a bit of argy-bargy – so these handball players must be a very polite lot, although the torn shirts suggest otherwise.”
Ja, ni känner igen de första upplevelserna av handbollen nu. Läs hela artikeln här:
Olympics diary: Egypt and Sweden handball example should be used in Cambridge