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Hombrados loses race for president

Francisco Vidal Blázquez has been elected President of Royal Spanish Handball Federation (RFEBM) at an extraordinary meeting held at the Spanish Olympic Committee headquarters on Monday, 22 April. Blázquez received 54 votes in total, while his opponent for the office, BM Atletico Madrid goalkeeper José Javier Hombrados, received 32 votes. "I am very proud to be here and I hope to meet all the expectations," Blázquez was quoted on the RFEBM's website after the election. "All of us here are handball and therefore I reach out to José Javier Hombrados to fight together to get handball ahead," he said to the assembly.

"It will be complex and complicated years," he acknowledged later on to the press. "So the goal is to join forces to lift handball because the human factor is the key to the development of the sport." Shortly afterwards Blázquez confirmed that Manolo Cadenas, the former coach of Ademar Leon, will follow in the footsteps of former Spanish national team coach, Valero Rivero, who last week officially confirmed his resignation from the posting. Media reports have been associating Rivera with the Qatari men's national team saying that he would lead the team in the two years until the 2015 World Championship which will take place in the desert state. However, there is still a small question mark behind Cadenas taking the job, as it depends on whether an agreement can be reached between the RFEBM and Polish club, Wisla Plock, that signed Cadenas as their new coach at the start of April, to combine the two positions. José Javier Hombrados said after the election that he now "needs to rest a bit."

"It has been tough work for many months, but I will think about it, and if necessary I will support what's necessary for the good of handball." However, Hombrados found back his smile soon after, saying that he at least will now be able to play in the second leg of the VELUX EHF Champions League Quarter-finals next weekend. It had been only on Saturday night that a stellar Hombrados' performance, which included two saved penalties, secured Madrid a 25:20 win against rivals, FC Barcelona, in the first leg.

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