Seven Barça Borges players came back from the Olympic Games in Beijing with bronze medals around their necks. The Spanish internationals enjoyed an unforgettable experience in China.
The Barça Borges players that travelled to Beijing had high hopes of winning medals. Twelve players
on three teams had real chances of winning (Croatia, Spain and Denmark) in the Chinese showdown.
Spain do best
The Spain team coached by Juan
Carlos Pastor, and with no fewer than seven FC Barcelona players in David Barrufet, Rubén Garabaya,
Juanín García, Demetrio Lozano, Albert Rocas, Iker Romero and Víctor Tomás got off to an irregular
start in the group stages, but made it into the knockout round. In the semi finals, they went out
to the surprise package of the tournament, Iceland (36-30). But there was still the fight for the
bronze to come, in which Spain beat Croatia in an epic match (29-35).
Barrufet and Juanín in starring roles
Two Barça players were particularly outstanding. David Barrufet, the Barça and Spain
captain, was standing down after four Olympic appearances. Juanín García ended up as the
competition’s top scorer on 49 goals.
Other Barça players
Barrufet and company came back with bronze, but the other representatives returned empty
handed. Venio Losert of Croatia lost out to Spain in the bronze medal match. Denmark and Kasper
Hvidt, Mikel Hansen, Jesper Noddesbo and Joachim Boldsen did well, finishing in seventh place.