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| Event type

Handball, Men

Date18 – 28 July 1976
StatusOlympic
LocationLe Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec / Centre Claude-Robillard, Montréal, Québec / Pavillon de l'Éducation Physique et des Sports de l'Université Laval, Québec, Québec / Palais des Sports, Sherbrooke, Québec
Participants161 from 12 countries
FormatRound-robin pools advance teams to classification matches.

Unlike at the 1972 Games, only the reigning World Champion (Romania) qualified directly. Still, most other top nations from the 1974 Worlds managed to qualify for the Games. The only notable team missing out was East Germany, which had lost the 1974 final against the Romanians. They were ousted by West Germany (only 9th at the Worlds) on goal difference.

The tournament rules put a strong emphasis on the pool stage of the competition: only the winners of each pool advanced to the next round, with no elimination rounds. In the first pool, three teams finished equal on points: USSR, West Germany and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia had defeated the Soviets (20-18), but lost to the West Germans (18-17), who in turn had lost to the USSR (18-16). Yugoslavia’s loss in the final group match came as a surprise to the reigning Olympic champions, but they played without focus and shot poorly - missing the Olympic final by just one goal. This put the matter down to goal difference. That meant the advantage went to the Soviet Union, which had demolished Canada 25-9 and Japan 26-16, while the other teams had scored more modest victories against these teams. In the other pool, Romania was clearly standing out, winning three matches while drawing one (the Match against Tunisia was cancelled as they withdrew due to the African boycott).

The Romanians were clear favorites to win the final, being the four time World Champions, while the Soviets’ best performance had been a fourth place in 1967. But the Soviet squad managed to eliminate playmaker Cristian Gaţu very well, while limiting Ştefan Birtalan, who had averaged almost six goals a game to )only) three scores. After 20 minutes, it was 8-3, already, which translated to a half-time score of 10-6. The second half was more evenly matched, but the final result was never much in doubt: 19-15. The bronze was contested by West Germany and Poland. The Poles won by virtue of their leading goalscorer Jerzy Klempel, who would have been the tournament top scorer, had his 15 goals against Tunisia not been stricken from the record after that nation’s withdrawal.

PosTeamNOC
1Soviet UnionURSGold
Right WingMikhail Ishchenko
Right WingAnatoly Fedyukin
Right WingVladimir Maksimov
Right WingSergey Kushniryuk
Vasily Ilyin
Right WingVladimir Kravtsov
Right WingYury Klimov
Yury Lagutin
Right WingAleksandre Anp'ilogovi
Right WingYevgeny Chernyshov
Right WingValery Gassy
Right WingNikolay Tomin
Right WingYury Kidyayev
Right WingAleksandr Rezanov
CoachAnatoly Yevtushenko
2RomaniaROUSilver
Right WingCornel Penu
Right WingGabriel Kicsid
Right WingCristian Gațu
Right WingGhiță Licu
Cezar Drăgăniță
Right WingRadu Voina
Right WingRoland Guneš
Alexandru Fölker
Right WingȘtefan Birtalan
Right WingAdrian Cosma
Right WingConstantin Tudosie
Right WingNicolae Munteanu
Right WingWerner Stöckl
Right WingMircea Grabovschi
CoachNiculae Nedeff
3PolandPOLBronze
Right WingAndrzej Szymczak
Right WingPiotr Cieśla
Right WingZdzisław Antczak
Right WingZygfryd Kuchta
Right WingJerzy Klempel
Right WingJanusz Brzozowski
Right WingRyszard Przybysz
Right WingJerzy Melcer
Right WingAndrzej Sokołowski
Right WingJan Gmyrek
Right WingHenryk Rozmiarek
Right WingAlfred Kałuziński
Włodzimierz Zieliński
Mieczysław Wojczak
CoachJanusz Czerwiński
4West GermanyFRG
Right WingManfred Hofmann
Right WingJürgen Hahn
Right WingGünter Böttcher
Right WingKurt Klühspies
Right WingPeter Kleibrink
Walter van Oepen
Right WingHorst Spengler
Right WingGerd Becker
Right WingBernhard Busch
Right WingJo Deckarm
Right WingRudi Rauer
Right WingArno Ehret
Right WingHeiner Brand
Peter Jaschke
CoachVlado Štencl
5YugoslaviaYUG
Right WingAbas Arslanagić
Right WingVlado Bojović
Right WingZdravko Rađenović
Right WingMilorad Karalić
Right WingRadisav Pavićević
Right WingZvonimir Serdarušić
Right WingHrvoje Horvat
Right WingBranislav Pokrajac
Radivoj Krivokapić
Right WingPredrag Timko
Right WingZdravko Miljak
Zdenko Zorko
Right WingNebojša Popović
Right WingŽeljko Nimš
CoachIvan Snoj
6HungaryHUN
Right WingBéla Bartalos
Right WingFerenc Buday
Right WingPéter Kovács
Right WingIstván Varga
Right WingMihály Süvöltős
Right WingIstván Szilágyi
Right WingJózsef Kenyeres
Right WingLászló Jánovszki
Right WingKároly Vass
Right WingErnő Gubányi
Right WingZsolt Kontra
Right WingGábor Verőci
Zoltán Bartalos DNS
Pál Kocsis DNS
CoachMihály Faludi
7CzechoslovakiaTCH
Right WingJán Packa
Right WingFrantišek Šulc
Right WingIvan Satrapa
Right WingVladimír Jarý
Right WingJiří Kavan
Right WingVladimír Haber
Right WingJindřich Krepindl
Right WingJiří Hanzl
Right WingJaroslav Papiernik
Right WingJozef Dobrotka
Right WingBohumil Cepák
Jiří Liška
Right WingPavel Mikeš
Štefan Katušák
CoachJiří Vícha
8DenmarkDEN
Right WingKay Jørgensen
Right WingPalle Jensen
Right WingAnders Dahl-Nielsen
Right WingLars Bock
Right WingJørgen Frandsen
Right WingClaus From
Right WingThomas Pazyj
Right WingBent Larsen
Right WingSøren Andersen
Right WingHenrik Jacobsgaard
Right WingJohnny Piechnik
Right WingThor Munkager
Jesper Munk Petersen
Morten Stig Christensen DNS
CoachJørgen Gårskjær
9JapanJPN
Right WingHiroshi Honda
Right WingMinoru Kino
Right WingKenji Fujinaka
Right WingTakezo Nakai
Right WingYoji Sato
Right WingKozo Matsubara
Right WingHiroshi Hanawa
Right WingKenichi Sasaki
Right WingToyohiko Hozumi
Right WingSatoshi Kikuchi
Right WingSeimei Gamo
Right WingMasaki Shibata
CoachTomoaki Takeno
10United StatesUSA
Sandor Rivnyak
Richard Abrahamson
Right WingRoger Baker
William Johnson
Peter Buehning, Jr.
Jim Rogers
Harry Winkler, Jr.
Right WingRandy Dean
Robert Dean
Kevin Serrapede
Bob Sparks
Jerry Glantz
Patrick O'Neill
Vincent DiCalogero
CoachDennis Berkholtz
11CanadaCAN
Claude Lefebvre
Christian Chagnon
Richard Lambert
Stan Thorseth
Pierre Ferdais
Robert Johnson
Pierre Desormeaux
Claude Viens
Pierre St. Martin
Hugues De Roussan
François Dauphin
Danny Power
Luc Tousignant
Wolfgang Blankenau
CoachEugen Trofin
12TunisiaTUN
Mohamed Abdel Khaled
Khaled Achour
Habib Ammar
Ahmed Bechir Bel Hadj
Abderraouf Ben Samir
Moncef Besbes
Raouf Chabchoub
Slaheddine Deguechi
Mohamed Naceur Jelili
Mounir Jelili
Habib Kheder
Lotfi Rebai
Mohamed Klai DNS
Salah Sassi DNS
Coach?

Preliminary Round

Date18 – 26 July 1976

Group A

Date18 – 26 July 1976
FormatRound-robin pools.
PosTeamNOCWinsDrawsLossesPointsGoals
1Soviet UnionURS4018111-77
2West GermanyFRG401897-76
3YugoslaviaYUG4018110-93
4DenmarkDEN203492-102
5JapanJPN104296-111
6CanadaCAN005075-122
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #118 Jul 19:00Soviet UnionURS26 – 16JapanJPN
Match #218 Jul 19:00YugoslaviaYUG22 – 18CanadaCAN
Match #318 Jul 19:00West GermanyFRG18 – 14DenmarkDEN
Match #420 Jul 20:30West GermanyFRG19 – 16JapanJPN
Match #520 Jul 20:30YugoslaviaYUG25 – 17DenmarkDEN
Match #620 Jul 20:30Soviet UnionURS25 – 9CanadaCAN
Match #722 Jul 19:00YugoslaviaYUG20 – 18Soviet UnionURS
Match #822 Jul 19:00West GermanyFRG26 – 11CanadaCAN
Match #922 Jul 19:00DenmarkDEN21 – 17JapanJPN
Match #1024 Jul 19:00DenmarkDEN24 – 18CanadaCAN
Match #1124 Jul 19:00Soviet UnionURS18 – 16West GermanyFRG
Match #1224 Jul 19:00YugoslaviaYUG26 – 22JapanJPN
Match #1326 Jul 20:30West GermanyFRG18 – 17YugoslaviaYUG
Match #1426 Jul 19:00JapanJPN25 – 19CanadaCAN
Match #1526 Jul 19:00Soviet UnionURS24 – 16DenmarkDEN

Group B

Date18 – 26 July 1976
FormatRound-robin pools.
PosTeamNOCWinsDrawsLossesPointsGoals
1RomaniaROU310991-71
2PolandPOL301880-71
3HungaryHUN202692-82
4CzechoslovakiaTCH112585-82
5United StatesUSA004280-122
ACTunisiaTUN[0][0][2][0][21]-[47]1
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #118 Jul 20:30RomaniaROU23 – 18HungaryHUN
Match #218 Jul 20:30CzechoslovakiaTCH28 – 20United StatesUSA
Match #318 Jul 20:30PolandPOL26 – 12TunisiaTUN
Match #420 Jul 19:00CzechoslovakiaTCH21 – 9TunisiaTUN
Match #520 Jul 19:00RomaniaROU32 – 19United StatesUSA
Match #620 Jul 19:00PolandPOL18 – 16HungaryHUN
Match #722 Jul 20:30HungaryHUN36 – 21United StatesUSA
Match #822 Jul 20:30PolandPOL21 – 18CzechoslovakiaTCH
Match #924 Jul 19:00PolandPOL26 – 20United StatesUSA
Match #1024 Jul 19:00RomaniaROU19 – 19CzechoslovakiaTCH
Match #1126 Jul 20:30HungaryHUN22 – 20CzechoslovakiaTCH
Match #1226 Jul 20:30RomaniaROU17 – 15PolandPOL

Final Round

Date27 – 28 July 1976
FormatMedal round.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match 1/228 Jul 18:30Soviet UnionURS19 – 15RomaniaROU
Match 3/428 Jul 17:00PolandPOL21 – 18West GermanyFRG
Match 5/627 Jul 19:00YugoslaviaYUG21 – 19HungaryHUN
Match 7/827 Jul 15:30CzechoslovakiaTCH25 – 21DenmarkDEN
Match 9/1027 Jul 14:00JapanJPN27 – 20United StatesUSA