In November 2022, on home ground at the Pavilhão Desportivo dos Pousos in Leiria, Portugal took the 2022 World and European Wheelchair Handball (Six-a-Side) World Championship title with an 18:10 win over Netherlands in the final.

Led by coach Danilo Ferreira, the Portuguese won all five matches, defeating Netherlands (20:10), Romania (21:10) and India (18:13) in their preliminary group before seeing off India again, in the semi-final (23:11), and then the Dutch for gold.

For Egypt 2024, Ferreira returns as coach, naming a side which features eight players of the 2022 golden run, ensuring a core of experienced winners will be present in Cairo as they aim to hold world titles in both formats of the game.

Joao Pedro, Rodrigo Vieira, João Jerónimo, Pedro Marques, Nuno Nogueira, Tiago Cantigas, Ricardo Queiros – who was top-scorer in Portugal two years ago – and Etelvina Vieira are joined by newcomers Vanessa Simão, Daniel Pereira, Maria Albertina Relvas and Fausto Coelho.

After hosting – and winning – the third edition of the ‘International Vida Trophy’ (Troféu Internacional Vida) last month the squad are currently undertaking their final preparations in Rio Maior this week with the current team of 12 reduced to 10 before the championship starts next week.

“The objective of this last training camp will be to work as hard as we can to represent Portugal in the four-a-side category at a world championship dignify our name and continue to have our athletes at the top of the sport, but it won’t be easy as all the countries have been working hard and have been for some time,” said coach Ferreira to ihf.info.

“Our group is strong and we will play against the home nation, Egypt, who will be a powerful opponent in front of their fans. We know India as we faced them in the last six-a-side world championship, while Chile are the team we know the least – but we will do our homework to study the opponents to succeed.

“All players in these competitions always have the greatest motivation to give their best and succeed, but the desire to make the sport a Paralympic Games one in the future will be an extra motivating factor for all teams at Egypt 2024.

“For Portugal, we have new faces entering the national team at our training camp, but we also have to recruit and raise awareness amongst our female athletes. Ultimately, this will involve leaving here with a word of commitment to our country: that we will fight with all our strength to achieve good results.”

For Ferreira’s captain João Jerónimo, who helped start and grow the sport in Portugal it is clear what the goal will be in Cairo.

“Any competition that Portugal enters the objective is the same: to win. Any game played by Portugal will be as if it were a final. We know India, since we already played them in 2022. Chile and Egypt, we have studied them well, and hope they will be vibrant games,” he said to ihf.info.

“We have a very experienced group with a huge desire to win and we know our strength as a team. Portugal is a reference in Wheelchair Handball and we want to continue that way.

“The group is very motivated and hungry to win and for any player who has the opportunity to represent their country in a world championship it is a huge source of pride – I am no exception to the rule.

“In Portugal, the sport continues to evolve and new athletes appear,” he added. “I hope that in the coming years we will have more teams competing, more young athletes joining competitions and joining the national team plus that the sport becomes part of the Paralympic Games and continues to evolve with the World and European Championships opening doors for new countries to join.” 

For Joaquim Escada, Vice President of the Portuguese Handball Federation (FPA) and coordinator of the FPA Andebol4All programme, which includes the sport, he is looking forward to seeing his team be tested on the world stage once again.

“If we take into account what happened in the previous competition, we have high hopes for Egypt 2024, but we also know that it's the first time we are participating in four-a-side where we will face many experienced national teams, but from what we feel, we have an excellent team,” said Escada to ihf.info about the chances of his national side in Egypt.

“When we started the Wheelchair Handball project in Portugal, we had the goal of working at home which would enable us to participate in the biggest events of the sport and to enhance the base of players to make it more attractive, and for that reason, our participation at Egypt 2024 is a wonderful experience.

“Last season, our national championship featured six clubs, three of which had just begun their activity and this current season we will do it again, but with an additional club,” he added.

“We are looking forward to increasing the number of teams in the future, both in six-a-side and four-a-side and creating new competitions for this sport – we are making a tremendous effort to raise awareness in other locations for this sport and working together with local communities.”

Coach: Danilo FERREIRA

Previous appearances: 2022 (4-a-side): DNQ, 2022 (6-a-side): 1st

Preliminary Group at Egypt 2024: Group B – India, Chile, Portugal, Egypt