Defending champion Russia ousted Olympic titlist Norway 28-20 in the semifinal of 2009 women's handball World Championship here on Friday and will face France in Sunday's final.

The two sides almost swept all the titles of major international women's handball tournaments in recent years. In the previous edition of the World Championship in 2007, Russia beat Norway 29-24 to defend the throne, while the Norwegians took a revenge in the following year's final of Olympic Games with a 34-27 triumph. Norway also took the continental title in 2008 after defeating Spain 34-21 .

Neither team managed to maintain a clean lead at the beginning of match on Friday and tied 8-8 seventeen minutes into the first half. The Norwegian side added three straight points before the three-time world titlist Russia threw in 8 unanswered goals, leading the first half 17-12.

The Russians continued to enjoy a comfort lead in the second half due to their tight defence and widened their winning margin to 8 points by the final whistle. The two Russian goalies, namely Inna Suslina and Anna Sedoykina, made great contribution to the team with their fantastic saves. Suslina blocked 11 out of 25 shoot while Sedoykina topped the goalkeeper ranking of the tournament with a total of 46 per cent saving rate.

Thorir Hergeirsson, coach of Norway, admitted after the match that they "lost to a much better team with hard defence and good attack".

In Sunday's final, Russia will meet France who trounced Spain 27-23 in an earlier semifinal. The two teams have won the titles of the previous four biyearly worlds, with Russia claiming the title in 2001, 2005 and 2007 while France cruising to the highest podium in 2005.

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