Written by Dean Shmuel Elmas
The Olympic Handball tournament will start on July 24th, 2020. Two tickets already taken: 1 for the host – Japan with the Icelandic head coach, Dagur Sigurðsson, and 3 players who play abroad – 2 in France, Adam Yuki Baig from Cesson Rennes MHB, Remi Anri Doi from Chartres and 1 in Hungary, Shinnosuke Tokuda from Dabas VSE KC. The second team, as we all know, are the amazing Olympic champions and the world champions now, for the first time ever – Denmark.
The Danes will be, without any doubt, major candidates for another Olympic gold but they want to know – just like us – who will be the opponents. From the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal there are 12 teams in the Olympic Games. As always, the world championship’s 2nd-7th place take 6 tickets to the Olympic Games qualification.
For the 2020 qualification, Norway, France, Germany, Sweden, Croatia and Spain took that tickets. From the qualification phase, 6 teams will join the world and continents champions, and this is the main Olympic point. If we look on the last world championship, even the 8th and 9th place – Slovenia and Macedonia, got a ticket from the tournament because the world vice champions then, Qatar – won the 2015 Asian Qualification Tournament and the 7th place then, Germany – won the 2016 European Championship. So, they both took a continental direct ticket.
The main differences between the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games are the teams who finished in 2nd-7th places and 8th-9th places in the world championship before. All the teams who finished in the 2nd-7th places in the 2019 world championship are European. The 8th place from Africa, Egypt, and the 9th from the Pan-American – Brazil.
It is realistic that one of the upcoming teams: Denmark, Norway, France, Germany, Sweden, Croatia Or Spain will win the next European championship and then Egypt will get the qualification from the world championship. But, if Egypt will win the African championship in Tunisia next year so the qualification ticket from the world championship will go to the 9th place – Brazil, and if Washington Nunes’s players will win the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru – so the last Olympic qualification from the world championship will go to Hungary and the legendary Captain – Laszlo Nagy.
This is not the end: the same situation means that Africa and Pan-American get another Olympic qualification ticket. Remember that in the 2016 Olympic games qualification in Ergo Arena,
Gdańsk/Sopot – The African vice champions then, Tunisia, beat Macedonia 32:26 and took the Olympic tickets with Poland.
Gdańsk/Sopot – The African vice champions then, Tunisia, beat Macedonia 32:26 and took the Olympic tickets with Poland.
If we think about the match in the world cup that Angola surprised the Asian champions, Qatar – The world handball year of 2020 will be fascinating!
