Chris Mohr has had the rug pulled from under him but he is not prepared to give up on his Olympic dream.

A few weeks after his 16th birthday, a new world of opportunities opened up to him; seven months after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics, British handball finally had a world-class programme to work to.

But the programme was all but halted in its tracks earlier this year when it was announced that the funding was to be cut significantly, leaving the sport to try and punch above its weight with one hand tied behind its back.

Mohr, now 19, is not letting it curtail his ambitions. Perversely, it has even helped him fulfil one of his boyhood ambitions.

With the funding cut, Great Britain farmed six players out to TUSEM Essen in the German Bundesliga, who were looking for players to bolster their squad having been hit by cutbacks of their own.

Brought up in Frankfurt - Mohr qualifies as a Scot through his mother - he had the chance to play in the strongest league in the world, right on his own doorstep.

"I started playing handball at the age of five - my dad was a handball player, so I just followed in his footsteps," Mohr explains as he enjoys some well-earned rest in Germany ahead of another hard season.

"My mum is from Scotland and lived there until she was ten and then moved to England with her parents and then to Germany when she met my dad.  I grew up near Frankfurt.

"When I was 16, I found out about the Scottish Handball Association and contacted them via email. They invited me to a training camp in which they were looking for the most talented players in Britain, because back then (February 2006) they had just launched the 'World Class Handball Programme'.

“Since then I have been part of training camps and international matches with team GB.
In January 2008, after finishing my education in Germany, I moved out to the Danish sports academy in Aarhus, where most of the national team squad were based. "I lived there for a year, playing for Brabrand IF - who are one of the top youth teams in the country."

It was while Mohr was in Denmark that he received the stunning news that the budget was to be cut by UK Sport just when the team looked to be making an impact.

As fortune would have it, it meant a return to his homeland and a chance to play in the Bundesliga, albeit for a team struggling to keep its head above water in the league.

"It meant six of us living in one apartment in Essen, but it was definitely worth it as we got to play against the best handball players in the world and gained loads of experience," he continues.

"My personal highlight was the game against THW Kiel, who are known to be the best handball team in the world and have been my idols since I was young."

The GB programme has just appointed a new head coach in 47 year-old Serbian Dragan Djukic, who previously coached Macedonia and Jordan and was part of the Swiss coaching team who guided the country in the qualifying stages of the European and World Championships.

He has played in Portugal and Hungary and is helping the GB players find contracts at European clubs in the season ahead. Whether Mohr can find his way back to Germany remains to be seen, but he is so keen to make the Olympics that he is funding his own immediate future.

"Of course the budget cut is really bad for us as we cannot fund the centralised programme in Denmark but there are also positives," the player continues.

"We are now forced to find top division clubs in Europe, who offer us contracts, so we can carry on.

"I will be moving back to Denmark in August though, on my own cost and live at the sports academy again, so I can still have six to nine training sessions a week, because essentially I want to go to the Olympics in London and that is my biggest dream!

I don't think there is anything better than to represent your country in the biggest sports event in the world."

RM
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