Coming up: Decisive month for powerhouses to shape up their future

01 Apr. 2024

Coming up: Decisive month for powerhouses to shape up their future

Women’s handball will be on high alert in April, as the menu is mouth-watering and will likely bring plenty of drama on display, with the Paris 2024 Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments as the headliner for this month.

After March brought six tickets to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the men’s competition, the three Olympic Qualification Tournaments, due to take place in Debrecen, Hungary, Torrevieja, Spain and Neu-Ulm, Germany, will deliver six more tickets in the women’s competition.

France, Denmark, Angola, the Republic of Korea, Brazil and Norway are already qualified and two teams from each Olympic Qualification Tournament – the two best placed sides in these competitions – will join.

12 teams are headed to the three Olympic Qualification Tournaments, which will take place between 11 and 14 April in the three aforementioned venues. In Debrecen, hosts Hungary will face Sweden, Cameroon and Japan, in what clearly is a balanced competition, with no place for mistakes.
 
Another well-balanced Olympic Qualification Tournament is the one hosted by Torrevieja, in Spain, where the hosts are due to face the Netherlands, Czechia and Argentina, while the third tournament, due to take place in Neu-Ulm, Germany sees the hosts face Montenegro, Slovenia and Paraguay.

Before the Olympic Qualification Tournaments, the best European senior women’s national teams will face off on 3 and 4 April and on 7 April in the EHF EURO 2024 Qualifiers, the first-ever European premium competition with 24 teams at the start.

Joining hosts Hungary, Austria and Switzerland, seven teams – Denmark, Sweden, Montenegro, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Romania – are mathematically qualified, with the other 14 berths ready to be awarded in the first week of the month.

Three Women’s IHF Trophies – for Africa Zones 2, 3 and 5 – will also take place in April, throughout the whole month, with several high profile clashes for the junior and youth women’s teams being scheduled.

Returning to the club competitions, the 31st edition of the CAHB African Super Cup for men's and women's club teams will take place in Algeria on 14–15 April 2024. The men's competition serves as qualification event for the 2024 IHF Men's Super Globe.

In the men’s competitions, Egyptian powerhouses Al Ahly and Zamalek are joined by JSK from DR Congo and Sporting Club from Egypt, while in the women’s competition, Angola’s two powerhouses – Petro Atletico and Primero de Agosto, will be joined by Congo’s DGSP and Al Ahly.

In the European men’s club competitions, the teams qualified for the quarter-finals of the EHF Champions League Men and the EHF European League Men will be decided, as well as the participants of the EHF FINAL4 in the EHF Champions League Women, with the quarter-finals for the latter competition being scheduled for 27 and 28 April and 4 and 5 May respectively.