North Macedonia women's national handball team

Macedonia
Information
Nickname	Lionesses
Association	Macedonian Handball Federation
Coach
Most caps	(230)
Most goals	(813)
Colours
Home Away
Results
World Championship
Appearances	5 (First in 1997)
Best result	7th (1997)
European Championship
Appearances	5 (First in 1998)
Best result	7th (2008)
Last updated on Unknown.

The North Macedonia women's national handball team is the women's national handball team of North Macedonia. It is governed by the Macedonian Handball Federation and takes part in international team handball competitions. The current head coach is Sime Simovski and the team's captain is Elena Gjorgjievska.

History[]

First Handball teams in Macedonia emerged in the second half of the 1940s. Soon Macedonian Handball federation started to organize national championships in big handball -11 players on a soccer field size. By the '60s it was transformed into small handball or indoor handball. Macedonian champions were qualified for federal Yugoslav Championship instead of European cup competitions. The best Macedonian players played for the Federal team of Yugoslavia. In the time of the federation 6 of the constitutional republics were sending one federal team to compete at the Olympics and World cup. Macedonia was participating within the federal team from 1950 till 1991. After the split of the federation, as a single republic from 1992 till 1994 Macedonia didn't manage to enter the qualifications for EC, WC and OG. From 1995 Macedonia participates as a single Republic to all qualifications and Championship tournaments.

Home ground[]

The BTSC - Boris Trajkovski Sports Center (Macedonian: Спортски центар Борис Трајковски, Sportski centar Boris Trajkovski) in Skopje is a multi-functional indoor sports arena. It is located in the Karpoš Municipality of Skopje, Macedonia. It is named after the former president, Boris Trajkovski. Its capacity is 10,000. There is an Olympic size Swimming Pool and 5 Star Hotel Alexander Palace within the complex. Additional Water Land Fun Park and Ice Skating Rink next to it.

The arena is a home-ground of the Macedonian handball team (men and women). The venue also contains four restaurants and a sports bar. It was one of two venues for the 2008 European Women's Handball Championship.It will be a Venue again for the 2022 European Women's Handball Championship

Results[]

During the period 1957 till 1991 Macedonia was within the Federation of SFRJ. It was represented internationally within the team Yugoslavia as part of the Federation of 6 Republics. Macedonia is not a successor of the results of team Yugoslavia it was just part of it. During that time was present at the 3 Olympics and 10 World cup tournaments within the successful team Yugoslavia. After the split Macedonian team started to compete representing the single independent Republic.

At the 1992 Olympics Yugoslavia team was banned to participate. At the World cup 1993 only teams from the Olympics qualified so the Macedonian team did not have a chance to qualify. For the first European Championship 1994 team Macedonia didn't enter the qualifications. For the World Cup 1995 only teams from EURO 1994 qualified so again team Macedonian didn't get a chance to participate. Since EURO 1996 team Macedonia is regular in the qualifications. It entered 5 European Championships first one in 1998 then in 2000, 2006, 2008 and 2012. Most successful was the 2008 when they finished 7th as a host. The Macedonia team qualified for the Euro 2022 as a host nation again. For the World Cup's they entered five times (1997, 1999, 2001, 2005 and 2007). The most successful was in 1997 when they've finished 7th. For the Olympic tournament, they had the best chance in 1999 World Cup when first they lost the 1/4 final game. Then after in the classification games for the 5 th place – last spot that qualifies for the Olympics finished 8th and did not qualify.

World Championship[]

Year	Pos.	Pld	W	D	L
1957 1993	1957,1962,1965,1971,1973 1975,1978,1982,1986,1990 Within Yugoslavia team 3,4,2,2,1,5,5,3,6,2
1995
1997	7th	9	5	1	3
1999	8th	9	4	0	5
2001	21st	5	0	1	4
2003
2005	15th	5	2	1	2
2007	12th	8	2	1	5
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023	TBD
Total	5/14	36	13	4	19

European Championship[]

Year	Pos.	Pld	W	D	L
1994
1996
1998	8th	6	2	0	4
2000	8th	6	1	3	2
2002
2004
2006	12th	6	1	0	5
2008	7th	6	3	0	3
2010
2012	16th	3	0	0	3
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022	Qualified as co-host
2024	TBD
2026	TBD
2028	TBD
Total	5/18	27	7	3	17

Summer Olympics[]

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
1976 1992	1980,1984,1988 Within Yugoslavia team 2,1,4
1996	did not enter
2000	Did not qualify
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
Total	0/6	–	0	0	0	0	0	0

Performance in other tournaments[]

• Carpathian Trophy 1993 – 3rd
• Carpathian Trophy 1999 – 3rd
• Carpathian Trophy 2000 – 4th
• Carpathian Trophy 2001 – 6th
• Carpathian Trophy 2006 – 3rd
• Carpathian Trophy 2010 – 4th
• Carpathian Trophy 2011 – 4th
• Carpathian Trophy 2017 – 4th

Team[]

Current squad[]

No. Pos. Name Date of birth (age) Height App. Goals Club 7 P (1995-02-07) 7 February 1995 (age 27) 1.80 m 31 48 8 CB (1994-09-23) 23 September 1994 (age 27) 1.72 m 2 2 10 CB Dushica Gjorgjievska (1987-12-28) 28 December 1987 (age 34) 1.77 m 34 60 Ardesen GSK 11 CB (1995-03-23) 23 March 1995 (age 26) 1.73 m 13 11 ŽRK Kumanovo 12 GK Dragana Petkovska (1996-06-12) 12 June 1996 (age 25) 1.74 m 26 0 SønderjyskE Håndbold 17 RW (1996-05-29) 29 May 1996 (age 25) 1.68 m 28 9 Ringkøbing Håndbold 18 RB Elena Gjorgjievska (1990-03-27) 27 March 1990 (age 31) 1.79 m 87 235 SCM Craiova 20 GK (1996-10-11) 11 October 1996 (age 25) 1.78 m 27 0 DHC Slavia Prague 22 P (1993-12-06) 6 December 1993 (age 28) 1.84 m 30 14 23 CB (1996-01-14) 14 January 1996 (age 26) 1.76 m 29 75 Chambray Touraine Handball 25 CB (1997-03-20) 20 March 1997 (age 24) 1.75 m 10 7 HC Naisa Niš 27 CB (1993-05-17) 17 May 1993 (age 28) 1.75 m 8 9 28 LB (1992-10-07) 7 October 1992 (age 29) 1.80 m 33 18 Kristianstad Handboll 33 RW Sara Ristovska (1996-09-09) 9 September 1996 (age 25) 1.69 m 39 181 CSKA Moscow 35 LW (1991-02-23) 23 February 1991 (age 30) 1.65 m 6 2 55 CB Elena Livrinikj (1992-11-16) 16 November 1992 (age 29) 1.80 m 29 30 HC Danubius Galați 71 LW Jovana Sazdovska (1993-06-27) 27 June 1993 (age 28) 1.77 m 34 91 Thüringer HC 88 LB (1998-06-20) 20 June 1998 (age 23) 1.78 m 12 11 ZRK Metalurg 93 GK (1993-09-01) 1 September 1993 (age 28) 1.77 m 21 0 Skara HF 99 LB Marija Shteriova (1991-03-19) 19 March 1991 (age 30) 1.79 m 16 29 CS Minaur Baia Mare

Technical staff[]

Position	Name
Head Coach
Assistant Coach	Aleksandar Carchev
Team Director	Emil Ugrinovski

Notable players[]

All-Star Team

• Indira Kastratovic, 1999 World Women's Handball Championship
• , 2000 European Women's Handball Championship

Top scorer

• Indira Kastratovic, 1997 World Women's Handball Championship

Others

• Natalija Todorovska, she scored 21 goals against Cameroon^[1] at the 2005 World Championship which is still a record in 2021
• Dragana Pecevska
• Julija Nikolić
• Mirjeta Bajramoska

See also[]

• North Macedonia men's national handball team
• Macedonian Handball Federation

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• IHF provile