RK Pelister
| РК Пелистер RK Pelister |
|
|---|---|
| Full name | Rakometen klub Pelister Bitola |
| Founded | 1955 |
| Arena | Sports Hall Mladost |
| Capacity | 5,000 |
| President | Kasim Kamenica |
| Head coach | Kasim Kamenica |
| League | VIP Super League |
| 2010-11 | 3rd |
| Colours | |
| Club colours | |
|
Website Official site |
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RK Pelister (HC Pelister) (Macedonian: РК Пелистер) is a team handball club from Bitola, Republic of Macedonia. It was the most successful Macedonian club in the 1990s having won five league titles and four national cups. Pelister has participated in the EHF Champions League and EHF Cup Winners' Cup five times and many other times in the EHF Cup and EHF Challenge Cup. They are also the first and only Macedonian men's handball team to reach a European final, back in 2002 when they played Skjern Håndbold in the EHF Challenge Cup.
The club was the first handball team in Macedonia, formed in 1946 under the name Pelagonija.
From the 1983-84 season Pelister began to participate regularly in the Yugoslav First League. They finished in third place in 1985 and were runners-up in back-to-back seasons (1986–87 and 1987–88) behind the dominant club Metaloplastika Šabac. Around that time the slogan "He who hasn't played in Bitola doesn't know what real support looks like" gained popularity, being uttered by the likes of Vlado Šola, Lino Červar and Zlatan Saračević. Pelister became the first ever Macedonian club to play in Europe, in 1986 against Atlético Madrid BM. In the 1987/1988 season they reached the quarter-finals of the EHF Cup where they were eliminated by East German club ASK Vorwärts. The first leg in Bitola was won by six goals, but the second leg in Berlin resulted in a loss by seven points, ending the club's European run.
When the Macedonian League was transformed into First League in 1992, Pelister became the most successful club, winning the majority of domestic titles in that decade. In 1996, they made it to the semi-finals of the EHF Cup Winners' Cup where they lost on aggregate by one goal to the eventual champion TBV Lemgo. A record, 7,000 fans were in attendance for the rematch at the Sports Hall Mladost. Seven players on Macedonia's squad at the 1999 World Men's Handball Championship in Egypt played for the club.
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