Draw for the 2018 IHF men’s and women’s beach handball World championships held in Kazan
The drawing of lots for the group stage of the 2018 Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships in Kazan took place on 15 May. The tournament matches will be played on 3 courts of the Beach Sports Centre.
The Chairman of the IHF Beach Handball Working Group, Giampiero Masi conducted the draw. The event was attended by the First Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan Khalil Shaikhutdinov, Deputy Director General of the Directorate for Sports and Social Projects Ranko Tepavcevic, and Head Coach of men's handball team of Russia, Vladimir Poletaev.
Following the results of the draw, the Group A of the men's event will include teams of Croatia, IR Iran, Uruguay, and Argentina. Group B – Vietnam, Spain, Hungary, and New Zealand. Group C features Denmark, Qatar, Oman, and Australia. Team Russia was given a right to choose its group as a host team. Our team will compete in Group D together with the teams of Brazil, USA, and Sweden.
Kazan 2018 Women’s Draw results are as the following: Group A brings together Australia, Spain, Greece, and Paraguay, and Group B – Chinese Taipei, Poland, Uruguay, and France. The Russian team joined Group C featuring Thailand, USA and Brazil. Group D consists of representatives of Norway, Denmark, Vietnam, and Mexico.
The championships in Kazan is the 8th edition of this tournament which is held every 2 years. For the first time in history, the championships will feature 16 men's and 16 women's teams. Previously the final stage brought together 12 men's and women's teams. About 550 athletes, coaches, judges and officials will come to Kazan.
It should be noted the Team Brazil is the most successful team both at men's and women's championships. Men's team has taken the crown of the championships for 4 times (2006, 2010, 2012, 2014), and women have won the tournament 3 times (2006, 2012, 2014). In 2016, the world championships was held in Budapest. The winners of the tournaments were men's team of Croatia who had defeated the Brazilians in the final match. In the women's championships, team Spain gained an upper hand over Brazilians.
The men's teams from Croatia and Brazil are the only teams to have participated at all 8 world championships. The women's Brazilian team is the only one to have played at all tournaments as well.
The first medal for team Russia was earned in 2004, when the Russian players claimed bronze. In 2016, the Russian team couldn't qualify for the world championships.
In 2004, the Russian team topped the podium at the women's event. They also earned bronze in 2006. The last time the women's team of Russia has participated in the tournament was in 2008.
The IHF made a decision to hold the Beach Handball World Championships 2018 in Russia at the congress in Qatar on 25 January 2015.
This is not the first time Kazan hosts a beach handball event. Since 2014, the capital of Tatarstan plays stage to the annual beach sports festival Plyazh that includes beach handball tournaments.
The 3rd All-Russian Beach Games 2017 served as a test event in the lead-up to the Championships. The participating teams competed for the Russia Beach Handball Cup among women.