The 11th Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championship begins June 18-23 in Pingtan in the People’s Republic of China. The national teams of Argentina and Brazil in both branches and Uruguay in the men’s category will be present.
The matches will be played at the “Pingtan International Beach Sports Base”, in Long Wangtou Ocean Park on Pingtan Island. The women’s groups were formed as follows: in Group A
Portugal, China, Philippines and Australia; in Group B Spain, Argentina, Vietnam and Croatia; Group C consisted of the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and the United States; Group D with Germany, Brazil, Greece and Puerto Rico.
For two weeks, the Brazilian women’s national team prepared with a group of 16 high-level athletes. Patricia Scheppa, right back assured that they are convinced to put into practice in the World Cup everything they have been training. “It won’t be easy, we have tough opponents in our group, but we studied them well enough to neutralize the strengths of each team. It has been a job to which we have dedicated a lot of concentration and we believe that we will come out with good results by putting into practice everything we have trained, we are a capable team”.Scheppa added.
In the men’s division, Group A is made up of Hungary, Denmark, Oman and Australia; Group B with Brazil, China, Spain and Tunisia; Group C with Croatia, Argentina, Portugal and Puerto Rico; Group D with Germany, Qatar, Uruguay and the United States.
In the run-up to the World Cup, Bruno Carlos de OliveiraThe Brazilian national team player said that they have had a very good preparation with two important competitions such as the Sur Centro Senior held in Asuncion in April, which was a qualifier for the World Championship, and the Global Tour Circuit 1 held in May in Marica.
It should be noted that in both competitions, the Brazilian national teams were crowned champions, both women and men, occupying first place. These days the Brazilian national teams are finishing a last stage of very intense training in the city of Maricá. “The team is very strong, very well trained, we have great expectations to present ourselves in the best possible way and achieve our main goal, which is the gold medal”,said Bruno.
Regarding the opponents they will play in Group B, he said: “Our group is quite mixed, with China debuting in a world championship, we do not know how they play, and being local the presence of the public will be very strong. We already know Spain and they always give us a difficult game and with Tunisia we played in Qatar, they are a young team that is growing a lot. I think it will be a balanced phase, but in beach handball there are no easy matches”.
The Brazilian national teams are one of the main powers in Beach Handball. The women’s team has participated in all the world editions and has won 3 gold medals, while the men’s team is the most successful with 5 titles.
Photos: CoSCABal/Camilo Rotela
