Their maiden triumph followed defeats in the 1996, 1998, 2006 and 2016 championship games.

They did it the hard way at this year's tournament having lost pool matches to Denmark by 25-22 and Slovenia, 31-26.

However, they moved up a gear when they needed to by seeing off defending champions Germany 31-27 and world champions France 27-23 in the semi-finals. 

France took the bronze medal with a 32-29 win over Olympic champions Denmark.