Handball Federation Satisfied with London 2012 Test at Olympic Park Arena

(ATR) International Handball Federation leaders tell Around the Rings that the IHF is ironing out a few issues at the new Olympic handball arena but claim glitches will be resolved by the 2012 test event final on Sunday.

Manfred Prause, chairman of the IHF's playing rules and referees commission, spoke to ATR at the London Handball Cup in the Olympic Park Thursday. It forms part of the London Prepares Series for the Games next summer.

Speaking about aspects of the first two days of competition play, Prause said: "The technical people are well prepared, of course not everyone on the same level which we have to check.

"On the organizing side, we have every day a meeting with LOCOG together - and day by day it seems that it is better."

"We are at 80 percent, and we try to be on Sunday when the final is played at 100 percent. We try not to find mistakes but a test event is to try and make things better and that is why we are here."

The London Handball Cup features six teams competing at the arena, a permanent venue for handball and other sports after the Olympics. The exterior of the venue comprises more than 3,000 square meters of mostly recycled copper cladding, giving it the nickname, the Copper Box.

Peter Sichelschmidt, a member of the IHF's commission of organizing and competitions, told ATR that he found the Copper Box an "excellent" venue for handball.

But he made the point that the federation must still prepare for any eventuality.

"When we started yesterday, there were a very big number of things we should take care of in the procedure and the technical aspects like the goal. From the first day on you have the possibilities to make mistakes, and it’s not a bad thing to make mistakes but you must not make the same mistakes twice.

"So we have to reduce the mistakes and find solutions to all the problems. And we have a lot of possibilities of problems - the energy can break down,we could have water on the field [of play], we don’t know how the statistics will work for penalty shootouts or extra time – we have to check it, otherwise we are not well prepared and this is our task here."

LOCOG handball competition manager Alex Gavrilovic agreed that there were just a few small elements that 2012 organizers along with the IHF were looking to "refine" for the Games next summer.

He told ATR: "We started late on the first match. This was a communication problem. This always happens at the beginning. So we started late, which I’m never happy about, but from the second game onwards everything ran as it should. This is why we test."

"We had some delays with our results system, not entirely our fault as we had some late shirt changes from Angola. But if the first two days are anything to go by we don’t have to fix too much, it’s really refining a few things otherwise everything else is going very well."

Responding to resentment in some quarters that the relatively small sport of handball was effectively getting the venue as it’s own permanent fixture in legacy mode, he said: "Let’s be clear about this – this venue is not exclusively for handball.

"There is a high demand for the venue, you can play three or four handball games at a time. It can host basketball, football, volleyball, badminton - and even boxing is interested in using it. As well as that, it will act as a venue for community events and trade fairs so it is not just for handball."

Post-Games, there are also plans to include a health and fitness club and a café for use by the local community inside the venue.

For now, though, the arena is home to Team GB ‘s handball team who will compete in the sport at the Olympics for the first time in 2012.

Captain of the women’s team Lynne McCafferty spoke of the pride she felt at such a unique event, after Team GB had beaten African champions Angola in the London Handball Cup on Wednesday.

"This was our first international match in this arena, we had to punch a few of the girls to stop them from crying before the national anthems, we are so proud to be part of Team GB and the Olympics," she said.

Reported by Christian Radnedge

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