On 13 January 2023, Denmark and Belgium met in the debut of their participation in the IHF World Cup in Poland and Sweden and the fans of both squads were felt at the Malmö Arena in Sweden. 12 thousand people sang and encouraged their players while María Inés Paolantoni and Mariana García, judges of the meeting, were preparing to whistle their first game in a male adult world championship.
“I remember making the entrance to referee and standing in the middle listening to the hymns, having a lot of players next door and I got goose bumps!” , says Mariana laughing.
He’s not a minor. The Argentine arbitral couple assumed a new challenge in their career: being part of the arbitration of a World Adult Male, something that no other female couple on the continent had achieved until then.
Credits: IHF[//]
In November 2022, Paolantoni and García received the news that they would be part of the World Cup of Poland-Sweden 2023 through a letter sent by the IHF and could not more happiness. “We felt it was a prize for all the effort and work we had been doing several years ago,” says Mariana, who says that this nomination was not a surprise but rather a confirmation. The Argentine female couple knew that there was the possibility of being nominated to the event, as they had been demonstrating a good performance in the last maximum rounds of which they have been part, highlighting their participation in the Junior Women’s World Championship of Slovenia 2022, where the final of the tournament between Norway and Hungary rang.
Thus, the Argentine couple who has been working for more than 5 years was preparing physically and mentally since their arrival in Argentina in July 2022, in case they were summoned to the World Cup. And so it was. With four designations in the tournament-Denmark vs Belgium, Croatia vs USA, Chile vs Uruguay and North Macedonia vs Tunisia-, the Argentine referees made their debut and proved to be up to the event, performing well on the court and getting good feedback from IHF officers.
For them this experience is “unforgettable and much learning” and certainly part of the history of arbitration not only in his career, but in that of Coscabal. With this nomination, the couple became the first non-European female couple to be present in a World Adult Male, being also part of the only 3 female refereeing couples in Poland and Sweden 2023, along with the French, Charlotte and Julie Bonaventura, and the Germans, Maike Merz and Tanja Kuttler.
Credits: IHF[//]
This fact excites them until today and has them proud, since they have become referents of arbitration in the South and Central American region. However, Argentine women do not want to be the only ones. “While we know that we are the first women to participate in renowned competitions, we do not want to be the last. We want more women to be able to achieve this and to be able to advance in the arbitral career and for this it is very important that women’s arbitration continues to develop in all Coscabal countries”.
In this way, the Argentine referees add another World Cup to their list and, for now, Mariana and María Inés continue working to give the best of themselves in the future competitions of Coscabal, the Argentine Federation and the Local Federation.
