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| Event type

Handball, Men

Date20 – 30 July 1980
StatusOlympic
LocationDvorets sporta Dynamo, Moskva / Dvorets sporta Sokolniki, Mosvka
Participants164 from 12 countries
FormatRound-robin pools advance teams to classification matches.

The first six teams of the 1978 World Championships qualified for Moscow, but the champion West Germans withdrew because of the boycott. Otherwise, the event had a strong line-up, even though two weaker nations, African champion Tunisia and Asian champion Japan, also boycotted, and they were replaced by Algeria and Kuwait respectively.

As in 1976, the winners of the pools qualified for the final directly, making the pool matches of vital importance. In Pool A, the East Germans didn’t have too much trouble reaching first place. They were held to a draw by Hungary (14-14), but as the Hungarians had also drawn against Poland, they held matters in their own hand. The fourth pool match against Poland was close (22-21), but East Germany reached the final. The second pool was much closer. Yugoslavia turned their match against Romania around, trailing 10-16 in the second half but winning 23-21 eventually. The Soviets failed to beat Romania (19-22), despite the fact that they had led 15-9 at half-time and that one of the Romanians was sent off at 19-20. This meant the final pool match between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia was decisive: if the Soviets won by four or more goals, they would reach the final. The home nation pulled off that feat (22-17), helped by goalkeeper Mykola Tomin, who stopped five penalty shots.

The final, between the second and third finishers at the World Championships, was as close as could be expected. At half-time, the score was 10-10, and at full time both teams had double their scores: 20-20 - the Soviets having equalized a mere 22 seconds before the final whistle. Aleksandre Anp’ilogovi scored the first goal of overtime, the Soviets then saw a penalty shot stopped by East German goalie Wieland Schmidt, who had also saved at 16-18. The DDR then rallied to pull ahead 23-21. Anp’ilogovi scored again in the final minute, but the scored remained at 23-22, giving the Germans their first Olympic title. Scorer of the final German goal, Hans-Georg Beyer, enjoyed a successful family Olympics: his brother Udo won a shot put bronze (he was the 1976 champion), while sister Gisela came fourth in the discus throw.

The team coming in last was Kuwait. They had qualified because first Japan and then South Korea had forfeited their place due to their nations’ boycott of the Games. They lost all six of their matches, averaging 14.6 goals for and 34.6 against. Against Yugoslavia, they lost 44-10. The goal difference from that match, 34, is still an Olympic record as of 2008. It also remains a record for goals scored by a male team in one match. The record was equalled in 2000 (Sweden-Australia 44-23) although the Austrian women beat Brazil 45-26 at those same Olympics.

PosNumberTeamNOC
1East GermanyGDRGold
1Siegfried Voigt
2Günter Dreibrodt
3Peter Rost
4Klaus Gruner
5Hans-Georg Beyer
6Dietmar Schmidt
7Hartmut Krüger
8Lothar Doering
9Ernst Gerlach
10Frank-Michael Wahl
11Ingolf Wiegert
12Wieland Schmidt
13Rainer Höft
14Hans-Georg Jaunich
CoachPaul Tiedemann
2Soviet UnionURSSilver
1Mikhail Ishchenko
3Viktor Makhorin
4Sergey Kushniryuk
5Aleksandr Karshakevich
6Vladimir Kravtsov
7Vladimir Belov
8Anatoly Fedyukin
9Aleksandre Anp'ilogovi
10Yevgeny Chernyshov
11Aleksey Zhuk
12Nikolay Tomin
13Yury Kidyayev
14Vladimir Repyev
15Valdemaras Novickis
CoachAnatoly Yevtushenko
3RomaniaROUBronze
1Nicolae Munteanu
2Marian Dumitru
3Iosif Boroș
4Maricel Voinea
5Vasile Stîngă
6Radu Voina
7Cezar Drăgăniță
8Cornel Durău
9Ștefan Birtalan
10Alexandru Fölker
11Neculai Vasilcă
13Lucian Vasilache
15Adrian Cosma
16Claudiu Ionescu
CoachNiculae Nedeff
4HungaryHUN
1Béla Bartalos
2László Szabó
3Péter Kovács
4Sándor Vass
5János Fodor
6István Szilágyi
7József Kenyeres
8László Jánovszki
9Ambrus Lele
10Ernő Gubányi
11Zsolt Kontra
12Alpár Jegenyés
13Árpád Pál
16Miklós Kovacsics
CoachLászló Horvath
5SpainESP
1José María Pagoaga
3Jesús Albisu
4Vicente Calabuig
5Juan de la Puente
6Rafael López
7José Novoa
8Juan José Uria
9Agustín Millán
10Francisco López
11Eugenio Serrano
13Gregorio López
16Juan Pedro de Miguel
18Juan Francisco Muñoz
Javier Cabanas DNS
CoachEmilio Alonso
6YugoslaviaYUG
1Zlatan Arnautović
2Momir Rnić
3Enver Koso
4Drago Jovović
5Stjepan Obran
6Jasmin Mrkonja
7Peter Mahne
8Pavao Jurina
9Goran Nerić
10Jovica Cvetković
11Velibor Nenadić
12Adnan Dizdar
13Mile Isaković
14Jovan Elezović
CoachPetar Lazarević
7PolandPOL
1Andrzej Kącki
2Zbigniew Gawlik
3Piotr Czaczka
4Marek Panas
5Jerzy Klempel
6Janusz Brzozowski
7Zbigniew Tłuczyński
8Grzegorz Kosma
9Daniel Waszkiewicz
10Ryszard Jedliński
12Henryk Rozmiarek
13Alfred Kałuziński
14Jerzy Garpiel
16Mieczysław Wojczak
CoachJacek Zglinicki
8SwitzerlandSUI
1Eduard Wickli
2Ernst Züllig
3Robert Jehle
4Roland Brand
5Max Schär
6Peter Maag
7Walter Müller
8Ruedi Weber
9Hans Huber
10Konrad Affolter
12Hanspeter Lutz
13Ugo Jametti
14Peter Jehle
Martin Ott DNS
CoachNikola Andric
9DenmarkDEN
1Ole Nørskov Sørensen
2Michael Berg
3Anders Dahl-Nielsen
4Thomas Pazyj
5Bjarne Jeppesen
6Iver Grunnet
7Morten Stig Christensen
8Carsten Haurum
9Palle Jensen
10Erik Bue Pedersen
11Hans Henrik Hattesen
12Mogens Jeppesen
13Poul Kjær Poulsen
14Per Skaarup
CoachLeif Christensen Mikkelsen
10AlgeriaALG
1Ahmed Farfar
2Abdel Krim Hamiche
3Azzedine Bouzerar
4Omar Azzeb
5Ali Akacha
6Ahcen Djeffal
7Kamel Hebri
8Mouloud Mekhnache
9Abdel Madjid Slimani
10Abdel Krim Ben Djemil
11Abdel Atif Bergheul
12Abdel Atif Bakir
14Rashid Mokhrani
16Mohamed Machou
CoachMohamed Aziz Derouaz
11CubaCUB
1Pablo Pedroso
2Roberto Casuso
3Jesús Agramonte
4Miguel Izquierdo
5José Nenínger
6Juan Llanes
7Juan Querol
9Juan Prendes
10Sabino Medina
11Roberto Zulueta
12Moisés Casales
14Ibrain Crombet
15Lázaro Jiménez
Lázaro Pedroso DNS
CoachManuel Quiala
12KuwaitKUW
1Faraj Al-Mutairi
2Khaled Shah Al-Zadah
3Saleh Dayef
4Fawzi Al-Shuwairbat
5Jasem Al-Deyab
6Ismael Shah Al-Zadah
7Jasem Al-Qassar
8Majid Al-Khamis
9Abdel Aziz Al-Anjri
10Mohamed Al-Qassar
11Musa'ed Al-Randi
12Khamis Bashir
13Abdullah Al-Qenai
Ahmad Al-Emran DNS
CoachJános Adorján

Preliminary Round

Date20 – 28 July 1980

Group A

Date20 – 28 July 1980
FormatRound-robin pools.
PosTeamNOCWinsDrawsLossesPointsGoals
1East GermanyGDR4109108-92
2HungaryHUN320896-88
3SpainESP2125102-106
4PolandPOL2125123-97
5DenmarkDEN104296-104
6CubaCUB0141103-141
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #120 Jul 17:00DenmarkDEN30 – 18CubaCUB
Match #220 Jul 18:30HungaryHUN20 – 20PolandPOL
Match #320 Jul 20:00East GermanyGDR21 – 17SpainESP
Match #422 Jul 17:00PolandPOL34 – 19CubaCUB
Match #522 Jul 18:30SpainESP20 – 19DenmarkDEN
Match #622 Jul 20:00East GermanyGDR14 – 14HungaryHUN
Match #724 Jul 17:00HungaryHUN20 – 17SpainESP
Match #824 Jul 18:30PolandPOL26 – 12DenmarkDEN
Match #924 Jul 20:00East GermanyGDR27 – 20CubaCUB
Match #1026 Jul 17:00CubaCUB24 – 24SpainESP
Match #1126 Jul 18:30HungaryHUN16 – 15DenmarkDEN
Match #1226 Jul 20:00East GermanyGDR22 – 21PolandPOL
Match #1328 Jul 17:00HungaryHUN26 – 22CubaCUB
Match #1428 Jul 18:30SpainESP24 – 22PolandPOL
Match #1528 Jul 20:00East GermanyGDR24 – 20DenmarkDEN

Group B

Date20 – 28 July 1980
FormatRound-robin pools.
PosTeamNOCWinsDrawsLossesPointsGoals
1Soviet UnionURS4018134-75
2RomaniaROU4018119-88
3YugoslaviaYUG4018132-92
4SwitzerlandSUI2034110-98
5AlgeriaALG104294-124
6KuwaitKUW005064-176
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #120 Jul 17:00YugoslaviaYUG22 – 18AlgeriaALG
Match #220 Jul 18:30RomaniaROU32 – 12KuwaitKUW
Match #320 Jul 20:00Soviet UnionURS22 – 15SwitzerlandSUI
Match #422 Jul 17:00RomaniaROU26 – 18AlgeriaALG
Match #522 Jul 18:30Soviet UnionURS38 – 11KuwaitKUW
Match #622 Jul 20:00YugoslaviaYUG26 – 21SwitzerlandSUI
Match #724 Jul 17:00SwitzerlandSUI32 – 14KuwaitKUW
Match #824 Jul 18:30Soviet UnionURS33 – 10AlgeriaALG
Match #924 Jul 20:00YugoslaviaYUG23 – 21RomaniaROU
Match #1026 Jul 17:00SwitzerlandSUI26 – 18AlgeriaALG
Match #1126 Jul 18:30YugoslaviaYUG44 – 10KuwaitKUW
Match #1226 Jul 20:00RomaniaROU22 – 19Soviet UnionURS
Match #1328 Jul 17:00AlgeriaALG30 – 17KuwaitKUW
Match #1428 Jul 18:30RomaniaROU18 – 16SwitzerlandSUI
Match #1528 Jul 20:00Soviet UnionURS22 – 17YugoslaviaYUG

Final Round

Date30 July 1980
FormatMedal round.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match 1/230 Jul 18:30East GermanyGDR23 – 22Soviet UnionURS
Match 3/430 Jul 14:45RomaniaROU20 – 18HungaryHUN
Match 5/630 Jul 13:00SpainESP24 – 23YugoslaviaYUG
Match 7/830 Jul 14:00PolandPOL23 – 22SwitzerlandSUI
Match 9/1030 Jul 12:30DenmarkDEN28 – 20AlgeriaALG
Match 11/1230 Jul 11:00CubaCUB32 – 24KuwaitKUW