STEVEN LARSSON cut an emotional figure as his London 2012 handball journey came to an end – but he insists it’s so long, not goodbye to the sport.

To a man the GB handball team have had a varied and sacrifice-laden journey to the Olympics – Scarborough-born Larsson was eligible to play for both Norway and Sweden but chose GB.

That journey culminated in making history at London 2012 as the first-ever GB team to take part in an Olympic Games.

On the playing side of things their final foray into action ended in similar fashion to their opening four games – a plucky defeat, losing 41-24 to reigning Olympic silver medallists Iceland.

However, in that defeat Larsson admitted their Olympic journey was defined – a journey he was pleased to have been part of.

“It was an emotional time at the end of the game against Iceland ,” he said. “What can I say, some of the guys have been in the set-up for six years and some will not continue after London 2012.

“It is the biggest thing that is ever going to happen in your lives to get to go to an Olympic Games and it has been fantastic.

“You can’t get bigger than this. In one way we were disappointed not to get a win at the Games but at the same time the experience itself was just amazing.”

Larsson and co and the sport at large now face an uncertain future. London 2012 has witnessed unparalleled investment in sport with teams like handball created from near-nothing in order to fill host-nation spots at the Games.

With the Games moving on to Rio for 2016 the expectation is that minority sports might be living on borrowed time. Larsson is adamant that should not be the case.

“I think it is possible for this team to get to the Rio Olympics,” he added.

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