The third set of tournaments provided the final teams for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

WOMEN’S TOURNAMENTS
The women’s tournaments took place in France, Sweden and Spain across three days: Friday 18 March, Saturday 19 March and Sunday 20 March 2016 with France, Netherlands, Romania, Montenegro, Russia and Sweden qualifying through.

Montenegro’s Marina Rajcic ended up as the best goalkeeper with a 48% save ratio (14/29), while Japan’s Shio Fujii top-scored on 19. Anne Mette Hansen topped the assists with 15, while the legendary Swedish player Isabelle Gullden totalled 25 goals and assists.

For an in-depth look at all the statistics, visit here.

Three teams from the qualification tournaments would take the top four spots at Rio 2016, with Russia defeating France in the final and Netherlands losing to Norway in the bronze medal match.

Tournament 1 (Metz, France): Japan (JPN), Tunisia (TUN), Netherlands (NED), France (FRA)

The Les Arenes in Metz, France saw Netherlands and France qualify through to Brazil with Japan and Tunisia missing out.

For a game-by-game review click here.

Results
JPN-TUN 37:20 (19:8)
NED-FRA 24:17 (9:7)
NED-JPN 33:25 (15:16)
FRA-TUN 33:15 (20:6)
TUN-NED 20:46 (10:27)
FRA-JPN 25:17 (11:7)

Ranking: 1 NED, 2 FRA, 3 JPN, 4 TUN

Tournament 2 (Aarhus, Denmark): Romania (ROU), Denmark (DEN), Montenegro (MNE), Uruguay (URU)

Denmark made some unwanted history as the first hosts of an Olympic qualification tournament to not qualify through to the Olympic Games as they finished behind Romania and Montenegro at the CERES Arena in Aarhus.

For a game-by-game review click here.

Results
URU-MNE 19:34 (10:15)
ROU-DEN 32:25 (19:13)
ROU-URU 36:19 (17:10)
DEN-MNE 22:26 (10:13)
MNE-ROU 23:23 (11:15)
DEN-URU 38:17 (19:7)

Ranking: 1 ROU, 2 MNE, 3 DEN, 4 URU

Tournament 3 (Astrakhan, Russia): Mexico (MEX), Poland (POL), Sweden (SWE), Russia (RUS)

Russia and Evgeny Trefilov started their Rio 2016 Olympic gold medal campaign on home soil, winning tournament 3 at the Sport Arena Zvezdny in Astrakhan, Russia, to book their ticket to Brazil in which would prove to be a golden year.

For a game-by-game review click here.

Results
POL-RUS 25:27 (11:11)
SWE-MEX 41:20 (21:9)
POL-SWE 24:30 (12:16)
RUS-MEX 37:17 (17:11)
RUS-SWE 37:29 (15:10)
MEX-POL 14:36 (5:18)

Ranking: 1 RUS, 2 SWE, 3 POL, 4 MEX

MEN’S TOURNAMENTS
The men’s tournaments took place in Poland, Sweden and Denmark across three days: Friday 8 April, Saturday 9 April and Sunday 10 April 2016 with Poland, Tunisia, Sweden, Slovenia, Denmark and Croatia qualifying through.

Poland’s Slawomir Szmal ended up with the best goalkeeping stats – 44% save ratio (18/41) – while Tunisia’s Oussama Boughanmi, Norway’s Kristian Bjornsen and Rodrigo Salinas of Chile – ended up joint top-scorers with 20 goals each. Croatia’s Domagoj Duvnjak led the top assists (16) and top scorer and assist (30) charts. 

For an in-depth look at all the statistics, visit here.

While Poland finished fourth in Rio, Denmark would eventually go on to win gold, defeating France in the final.

Tournament 1 (Gdansk, Poland): Tunisia (TUN), Chile (CHI), FYR Macedonia (MKD), Poland (POL)

The ERGO Arena in Gdansk saw Tunisia upset the European continent as they sealed second place in the group to claim their Rio 2016 ticket thanks to a 32:26 win over the then FYR Macedonia. Despite losing to hosts Poland, Tunisia’s victory against the Macedonians combined with a Macedonian loss against Poland saw them through.

For a game-by-game review click here.

Results
CHI-TUN 29:35 (12:17)
POL-MKD 25:20 (13:9)
MKD-TUN 26:32 (10:17)
POL-CHI 35:27 (19:13)
MKD-CHI 35:27 (17:14)
TUN-POL 24:28 (13:15)

Ranking: 1 POL, 2 TUN, 3 MKD, 4 CHI

Tournament 2 (Malmo, Sweden): Sweden (SWE), Spain (ESP), Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), Slovenia (SLO)

One of the tightest-ever Olympic qualification tournaments saw Sweden, Spain and Slovenia finish on four points each at the Malmo Arena, but Spain did not go through to Rio after they could only beat Sweden by two 25:23 and not the required three goals.

For a game-by-game review click here.

Results
ESP-SLO 21:24 (16:12)
IRI-SWE 19:34 (9:16)
ESP-IRI 37:23 (18:12)
SLO-SWE 23:24 (9:12)
SWE-ESP 23:25 (11:12)
SLO-IRI 33:17 (17:8)

Ranking: 1 SLO, 2 SWE, 3 ESP, 4 IRI

Tournament 3 (Herning, Denmark): Bahrain (BRN), Norway (NOR), Denmark (DEN), Croatia (CRO)

The Danes, like the Russian women, started their eventual Rio 2016 gold medal journey on home soil, remaining unbeaten in their three matches at the Jyske Bank BOXEN in Herning against Bahrain, Croatia and Norway. But it was a 25:25 draw against neighbours Norway which would prove to be the crucial in the end as the took Croatia through to Brazil with them.

For a game-by-game review click here.

Results
NOR-BRN 35:29 (16:15)
DEN-CRO 28:24 (11:9)
CRO-BRN 33:22 (14:14)
DEN-NOR 25:25 (12:13)
CRO-NOR 27:21 (14:7)
BRN-DEN 24:26 (12:12)

Ranking: 1 DEN, 2 CRO, 3 NOR, 4 BRN