After the men’s pre-Olympic tournaments in March, it was the women’s turn last week in three different cities to decide the last six spots for the Games, completing the handball grill for this Tuesday’s draw at 17:00 local time.
Six teams had already qualified for the women’s competition: reigning world and Olympic champions France as hosts, world runners-up Norway, European runners-up Denmark, Asian qualifying winners South Korea, African qualifiers Angola and Pan American champions Brazil.
Torrevieja, Spain, hosted one of the qualifying tournaments alongside Argentina and two teams that had recently beaten the Spanish ‘Guerreras’: the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. In the opening game, the Spaniards played an excellent game against the Czechs (21-31).
Former Russian coach Ambros Martin’s side also defeated Argentina (23-26) to join the ‘Oranje’ in booking their ticket to Paris after day two. The 2019 world champions, coached by Sweden’s Per Johansson, also defeated La Garra (34-22) and the Czech Republic (32-18).
On the final day, Spain was on the verge of an important victory against the Netherlands, but the Dutch reacted in time to win 26-27 thanks to eight goals from Oranje star Angela Malenstein.
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Hungary hosted another International Handball Federation (IHF) qualifying tournament in Tatabanya. The ‘Magyars’, coached by Odessa-born Vladimir Golovin, won all three games with three different stars: 49-11 against poor Great Britain with seven goals from Dorottya Faluvegi, 35-38 against Sweden in a great game with Csenge Kuczora top scorer with eight goals and 37-28 against Japan with 11 goals from Katrin Gitta Klujber.
Sweden finished second after beating Japan 35-28 in the deciding match on the first day, with six goals each from their two biggest stars: Jamina Roberts of Norway’s Vipers Kristiansand and Linn Blohm of Hungary’s Győri Audi ETO. Great Britain, who replaced Cameroon, finished with zero points, 35 goals scored and 144 goals conceded.
The third and final tournament was hosted by Hanover, Germany, who won all three of their games on Friday to secure qualification, beating Slovenia 31-25 and Montenegro 28-24, with right-back Julia Maidhof of Romania’s SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea scoring nine goals in both games.
In Sunday’s final match, Slovenia and Montenegro battled it out for the second quota in a great match that the Slovenians controlled, winning 26-39 thanks to seven goals from star players Anna Gros (Győri ETO KC) and Tjasa Stanko (Slovenia’s RF Krim). Paraguay lost all their matches with a goal difference of -40 (59-99).
