France underlined its status as the world’s top men’s handball country Sunday, beating Sweden 22-21 in a tense Olympic final to take the gold medal.
The French added the Olympic title to the world championships they won in 2009 and 2011, as well as the 2010 European title.
France was 10-8 up at half-time, but was forced to deal with a Swedish fightback in a second half that ended 13-12.
Luc Abalo scored the crucial goal with 39 seconds remaining to put France 22-20 ahead and Sweden could only score one of the two goals they needed in the remaining time, Kim Ekdahl du Rietz scoring with 23 seconds on the clock.
The top scorer was Sweden’s Niclas Ekberg, with six goals from eight shots.
