The last opportunity to qualify for the Tokyo 2020+1 Olympic Games begins for teams from South and Central America. From March 12 to 14, the three tournaments that will give the last six tickets to the ring event will be held in parallel.
Tournament 1 will be held in Pogdorica, the capital of Montenegro after the IHF decided to change the original venue due to access restrictions decided by the Norwegian authorities. Tournament 2 will be held in Montpellier, France and Tournament 3 in Berlin, Germany.
There are six qualified teams: Japan, Denmark, Spain, Egypt, Bahrain and Argentina.
Tournament 2 brings together local France who will seek qualification against Tunisia, Portugal and Croatia. Tournament 3 will face the local Germany at the home of the Berlin Foxes (Berlin Füsche), a stadium with capacity for 11,000 spectators and which will be empty due to the health restrictions associated with Covid-19, the tournament also includes Sweden, Algeria and Slovenia. The pair of IHF referees from Argentina made up of Julián López-Grillo and Sebastián Lenci will be refereeing the Tournament.
Tournament 1 is the one that arouses the most interest in America, Brazil and Chile, who arrive by different routes, will face Norway and the Republic of Korea. Brazil enters this tournament for its ninth place obtained in the previous IHF World Cup by not achieving a direct place in the Lima 2019 JJPP. And Chile qualifies precisely for the second place obtained in Lima 2019 where it left Brazil in the way by defeating it in semi-finals.
Statements:
Marcus “Tata” Oliveira, Brazil’s coach: “We are ready to have a great Pre-Olympic. Brazil will enter the field to seek qualification. Norway is a very high quality team, which is in the highest echelon of world handball. Korea and Chile are consistent teams and we must be very careful throughout the game. We have conditions for classification, but we will only achieve it if we are very dedicated all the time”, he declared in an interview on the CBHb portal.
For its part, Chile faces one of the most important challenges in the history of its handball. “I am very happy to have the possibility of going and being part of the National Team that can do something so historic for national handball. I am very focused, eager and ready to face this new challenge”, commented the player, Erwin. Feuchtmann to the FChB portal.
Match schedule (times are from Santiago de Chile):
03/12 1:30 PM Chile vs Korea
16.00 Brazil vs Norway
03/13 13.30 Brazil vs Korea
16.00 Norway vs Chile
03/14 1:30 PM Brazil vs Chile
16.00 Norway vs Korea
Photo: Team Chile
