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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.

PosNumberTeamNOC
1Soviet UnionURSGold
Right Wing1Mikhail Ishchenko
Right Wing2Anatoly Fedyukin
Right Wing3Vladimir Maksimov
Right Wing4Sergey Kushniryuk
5Vasily Ilyin
Right Wing6Vladimir Kravtsov
Right Wing7Yury Klimov
8Yury Lagutin
Right Wing9Aleksandre Anp'ilogovi
Right Wing10Yevgeny Chernyshov
Right Wing11Valery Gassy
Right Wing12Nikolay Tomin
Right Wing13Yury Kidyayev
Right Wing14Aleksandr Rezanov
CoachAnatoly Yevtushenko
2RomaniaROUSilver
Right Wing1Cornel Penu
Right Wing2Gabriel Kicsid
Right Wing3Cristian Gațu
Right Wing4Ghiță Licu
5Cezar Drăgăniță
Right Wing6Radu Voina
Right Wing7Roland Guneš
8Alexandru Fölker
Right Wing9Ștefan Birtalan
Right Wing10Adrian Cosma
Right Wing11Constantin Tudosie
Right Wing12Nicolae Munteanu
Right Wing13Werner Stöckl
Right Wing14Mircea Grabovschi
CoachNiculae Nedeff
3PolandPOLBronze
Right Wing1Andrzej Szymczak
Right Wing2Piotr Cieśla
Right Wing3Zdzisław Antczak
Right Wing4Zygfryd Kuchta
Right Wing5Jerzy Klempel
Right Wing6Janusz Brzozowski
Right Wing7Ryszard Przybysz
Right Wing9Jerzy Melcer
Right Wing10Andrzej Sokołowski
Right Wing11Jan Gmyrek
Right Wing12Henryk Rozmiarek
Right Wing13Alfred Kałuziński
14Włodzimierz Zieliński
16Mieczysław Wojczak
CoachJanusz Czerwiński
4West GermanyFRG
Right Wing1Manfred Hofmann
Right Wing2Jürgen Hahn
Right Wing3Günter Böttcher
Right Wing5Kurt Klühspies
Right Wing6Peter Kleibrink
7Walter van Oepen
Right Wing8Horst Spengler
Right Wing9Gerd Becker
Right Wing10Bernhard Busch
Right Wing11Jo Deckarm
Right Wing12Rudi Rauer
Right Wing13Arno Ehret
Right Wing14Heiner Brand
16Peter Jaschke
CoachVlado Štencl
5YugoslaviaYUG
Right Wing1Abas Arslanagić
Right Wing2Vlado Bojović
Right Wing3Zdravko Rađenović
Right Wing4Milorad Karalić
Right Wing5Radisav Pavićević
Right Wing6Zvonimir Serdarušić
Right Wing7Hrvoje Horvat
Right Wing8Branislav Pokrajac
9Radivoj Krivokapić
Right Wing10Predrag Timko
Right Wing11Zdravko Miljak
12Zdenko Zorko
Right Wing13Nebojša Popović
Right Wing16Željko Nimš
CoachIvan Snoj
6HungaryHUN
Right Wing1Béla Bartalos
Right Wing2Ferenc Buday
Right Wing3Péter Kovács
Right Wing4István Varga
Right Wing5Mihály Süvöltős
Right Wing6István Szilágyi
Right Wing7József Kenyeres
Right Wing8László Jánovszki
Right Wing9Károly Vass
Right Wing10Ernő Gubányi
Right Wing11Zsolt Kontra
Right Wing12Gábor Verőci
Zoltán Bartalos DNS
Pál Kocsis DNS
CoachMihály Faludi
7CzechoslovakiaTCH
Right Wing1Ján Packa
Right Wing2František Šulc
Right Wing3Ivan Satrapa
Right Wing4Vladimír Jarý
Right Wing5Jiří Kavan
Right Wing7Vladimír Haber
Right Wing8Jindřich Krepindl
Right Wing9Jiří Hanzl
Right Wing10Jaroslav Papiernik
Right Wing11Jozef Dobrotka
Right Wing12Bohumil Cepák
13Jiří Liška
Right Wing14Pavel Mikeš
Štefan Katušák
CoachJiří Vícha
8DenmarkDEN
Right Wing1Kay Jørgensen
Right Wing2Palle Jensen
Right Wing3Anders Dahl-Nielsen
Right Wing4Lars Bock
Right Wing5Jørgen Frandsen
Right Wing6Claus From
Right Wing7Thomas Pazyj
Right Wing8Bent Larsen
Right Wing9Søren Andersen
Right Wing11Henrik Jacobsgaard
Right Wing12Johnny Piechnik
Right Wing13Thor Munkager
14Jesper Munk Petersen
Morten Stig Christensen DNS
CoachJørgen Gårskjær
9JapanJPN
Right Wing1Hiroshi Honda
Right Wing2Minoru Kino
Right Wing3Kenji Fujinaka
Right Wing4Takezo Nakai
Right Wing5Yoji Sato
Right Wing6Kozo Matsubara
Right Wing7Hiroshi Hanawa
Right Wing8Kenichi Sasaki
Right Wing9Toyohiko Hozumi
Right Wing10Satoshi Kikuchi
Right Wing11Seimei Gamo
Right Wing12Masaki Shibata
CoachTomoaki Takeno
10United StatesUSA
1Sandor Rivnyak
2Richard Abrahamson
Right Wing3Roger Baker
4William Johnson
5Peter Buehning, Jr.
6Jim Rogers
7Harry Winkler, Jr.
Right Wing8Randy Dean
9Robert Dean
10Kevin Serrapede
11Bob Sparks
12Jerry Glantz
13Patrick O'Neill
14Vincent DiCalogero
CoachDennis Berkholtz
11CanadaCAN
1Claude Lefebvre
2Christian Chagnon
3Richard Lambert
4Stan Thorseth
5Pierre Ferdais
6Robert Johnson
7Pierre Desormeaux
8Claude Viens
9Pierre St. Martin
10Hugues De Roussan
11François Dauphin
12Danny Power
13Luc Tousignant
14Wolfgang 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
CoachBrahim Riahi

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 – 9Canada 1CAN
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]2
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 – 9Tunisia 3TUN
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