Russia won its first women's handball Olympic gold medal on Saturday (20 August) by beating France 22-19 at the Future Arena.

A hard-fought final, with the lowest scoring total in Olympic women's history, saw Russia take a four-goal advantage with five minutes to go then grind out the win.

"I'm so happy, I think I'm the happiest woman in the world right now," said Russia's top scorer Anna Vyakhireva. "We were the best team and we really believed in it, the whole group.

"It means everything for my sporting life. This is everything I have lived for."

"Our team played exceptionally," said French player Manon Houette. "This is a golden memory that I will keep. This medal was well-deserved. I'm going to take it everywhere because it represents a lot of work and sacrifices, and I will show the medal to everyone who has contributed to my success."

Vyakhireva shared top-scorer honours on five goals with France's Allison Pineau and Siraba Dembele.

Both teams were coming off the back of one-point wins in their semi-finals. Russia, in particular, may have been feeling end-of-Games fatigue after defeating pre-tournament favourites and reigning champions Norway in overtime in their semi-final.

This match-up was just as close when the two teams met in the preliminaries and Russia came out on top by one point.

Neither team was taking any prisoners (Photo: Getty Images/David Ramos)

Though the Soviet Union won the handball Olympic title in 1976 and 1980, this was the first time a Russian women's team won Olympic gold in any sport.

France's silver is its first women's handball medal, and it has a chance to add men's gold Sunday.

France looks to be first team to win three consecutive handball gold medals

Earlier, pre-tournament favourites Norway cruised to bronze in a 36-26 win over the Netherlands, with seven goals from tournament top scorer Nora Mork.

On Sunday, France and Denmark play for men's gold after Germany and Poland contest bronze.

The Russians enjoyed a trip to the Christ the Redeemer statue earlier on during the Games (Photo: Rio 2016/Cameron Macphail)