1977 FIB WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MEN

Drammen , Mjøndalen , Oslo och Stabæk, Norway, 23-30 January

The championship was won by the defending World Champion USSR ahead of Sweden with Finland in third place. It was USSR’s 10th title in a row and the USSR had won all the tournaments until then. 

There was excitement about the rankings until the last game day, as the two matches on this day determined the distribution of gold, silver and bronze medals. In the last games Norway played against Finland, and the Norwegians would need a victory of four goals or more to overtake the Finns in third place. But Finland limited the defeat to 4-2 and could thus travel home with the bronze medals. In the final game of the tournament, Sweden just needed a victory over USSR to win gold for the first time. The Swedes had previously won the two teams’ first encounter by 3-2, but the Swedes were unable to repeat that victory. USSR won the decisive game by 3-2, and then ended the championship as it used to – with gold medals for USSR.

1 USSR          2 SWEDEN          3 FINLAND

BEST GOAL SCORER

Bengt Ramström, Sweden and Valery Eichvald, USSR — 7 goals each!

BEST PLAYERS

Goalkeeper
Tommy Axelsson, Sweden

Defender
Vladimir Plavunov, USSR

Forward
Bengt Ramström, Sweden