2010 European Women's Handball Championship
The 2010 European Women's Handball Championship was held in Denmark and Norway from 7–19 December. It was the first European Championship hosted by two countries. Norway won their overall 5th gold medal, when they defeated first time finalist Sweden in the final. Romania claimed the bronze medal. Venues. Three Danish and two Norwegian cities have been selected to host the 2010 Championship. The venues in Aalborg, Aarhus and Larvik were only used during the preliminary round. The fourth venue to be used in this round is located in Lillehammer, and was also one  of the two venues in the main round. The other being MCH Indoor Arena in Herning, which was the only venue to be used in the final round. Competition Format. Ranking in preliminary and main round. If two or more teams were equal on points in the preliminary or main round, their ranking was determined as follows: During the preliminary or main round matches: After the completion of the preliminary and main round matches: Qualification. Qualification matches were played from September 2009 to May 2010. Following the new system introduced for the 2010 Men's Championship, all teams were included  in the qualification round, except host Denmark and defending champion and host Norway. Teams were divided in 7 groups and the two top ranked teams from each group qualified. Squads. Each nation had to submit an initial squad of 28 players by 3 November 2010, but 12 of them became reserves when the final squad of 16 players was announced the day before the tournament starts. Referees. 13 Referee pairs were selected: Seeding. The draw for the final tournament took place 17:00 CET on 5 June 2010 in Odense. Main Round. Top 2 teams from each group advanced to the  Semifinals, while the third placed team from each group competed in a 5th/6th place play-off.