DOHA: Handball heavyweights France clinched their fifth world title after versatile playmaker Nikola Karabatic steered them to a 25-22 win over host nation and surprise finalists Qatar in a hotly contested duel on Sunday.
The French unified world, Olympic and European titles to underline their dominance of the game but Qatar also had plenty to cheer after becoming the first non-European nation to win a world championship medal.
Earlier on Sunday, Poland won the bronze medal with a dramatic 29-28 win over 2013 winners Spain after Michal Szyba produced an excellent eight-goal performance and Kamil Syprzak netted the winner with 30 seconds left.
Roared on by a passionate 15,000 home crowd, an internationally-flavoured Qatar, boasting a plethora of foreign-born players who were granted citizenship in the build-up to the tournament, pushed the French all the way in a bruising battle.
Led by the inspirational Karabatic, who scored all his five goals in the first half and dished out several key assists in the second, it seemed the French would stroll towards the silverware after they took a 13-7 lead late in the opening period.
But with Karabatic stifled in front of goal after the break, Qatar stormed back through their top scorer Zarko Markovic, fellow Bosnian-born goalkeeper Danijel Saric and Cuban import Rafael Capote.
Having cut the deficit to two goals in the closing stages, the Asian champions fell short of staging yet another upset after Valentin Porte and Daniel Narcisse scored crunch goals to finish with four apiece for France.
Markovic was the game's top scorer with seven, Capote added six and Saric racked up 14 saves for Qatar, who stunned former champions Germany in the quarter-finals and Poland in the semis.
But in the end it was several hundred joyous Les Bleus fans, draped in French flags and sporting team shirts, who celebrated in the Lusail Arena. Coach Claude Onesta, who now has a total of eight world, European and Olympic gold medals with France in his trophy cabinet, praised his team's fighting spirit.
"We lacked freshness so courage, more than talent, won us the game," he told BeIN television. "Our defence was solid one more time and it's a fantastic moment." Right back Xavier Barachet, also instrumental with three second-half goals, added: "We had to fight for it and showed a lot of guts."
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