Draw for beach handball at the 2019 ANOC World Beach Games complete

The draw for the men’s and women’s beach handball competitions of the inaugural ANOC World Beach Games took place at the headquarters of the Qatar Olympic Committee in Doha this morning.

The beach handball competitions start a day before the official opening day of the multisport event in Doha, Qatar, with 12 men’s and 12 women’s team battling it out from 11-16 October.

Teams will play in two initial preliminary groups of six teams each in a round-robin format over the first three matchdays (11, 12, 13 October). The top four teams in each group will then move into the quarter-finals (14 October) before the semi-finals and medal matches on Wednesday 16 October after a rest day.

Fifth and sixth placed teams in the preliminary groups, as well as losers in the knockout rounds will play in various placement matches on the 13, 14, 15 and 16 October.

Poland replaced Norway and Vietnam replaced Qatar as substitute nations in the women’s competition, with the draw results for both competitions as follows:

Men’s Competition

Group A: Brazil (BRA), Sweden (SWE), Denmark (DEN), Oman (OMA), United States of America (USA), Australia (AUS)

Group B: Croatia (CRO), Hungary (HUN), Spain (ESP), Qatar (QAT), Uruguay (URU), Tunisia (TUN)

Women’s Competition

Group A: Brazil (BRA), Denmark (DEN), Hungary (HUN), Argentina (ARG), United States of America (USA), Tunisia (TUN)

Group B: Greece (GRE), Spain (ESP), Poland (POL), P.R. of China (CHN), Australia (AUS), Vietnam (VIE)

More than 90 countries will compete in 13 beach sports competitions held on the beaches of the Katara cultural district and at the Al Gharafa Beach Club and Aspire sports complex.

Home fans will be hoping that the Qatari men’s team can be in the medals again after winning bronze in the 2014 and 2016 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championships, gold at the last five editions of the AHF Men’s Beach Handball Asian Championships and gold in the last three editions of the Asian Beach Games. 

The 2019 ANOC World Beach Games in Doha was originally due to be held in San Diego, USA, but in June hosting moved to Qatar. A new brand for the event was launched last month including a logo resembling a ‘Q’ to represent host nation Qatar and incorporating yellow and blue to represent the sun and sea, plus a dolphin selected as the new mascot.

Last month, IHF Beach Handball Working Group Chairman Giampiero Masi was in Qatar for the International Federation (IF) Technical Directors Meeting while a Chef de Mission seminar took place earlier this month where presentations on arrivals and departures, accommodation, transport, media, telecommunications and the ceremonies for the event were given.

Match Schedule – Beach Handball at the 2019 ANOC World Beach Games
*Competition Management has the right to change the order, the court and the time of the matches, all times local

Friday 11 October

Men’s Preliminary Group matches: 09:00, 11:30, 18:00, 20:30
Women’s Preliminary Group matches: 09:50, 10:40, 18:50, 19:40

Saturday 12 October

Men’s Preliminary Group matches: 09:00, 11:30, 14:00, 16:30
Women’s Preliminary Group matches: 09:50, 10:40, 14:50, 15:40

Sunday 13 October

Men’s Preliminary Group matches: 09:50, 11:30
Women’s Preliminary Group matches: 09:00, 10:40

Half Rest Day

Monday 14 October

Men’s matches: Placement 9-12: 10:40, 11:30, Quarter-Finals: 15:50, 17:30, 19:10, 20:50 
Women’s matches: Placement 9-12: 09:00, 09:50, Quarter-Finals: 15:00, 16:40, 18:20, 2:000 

Tuesday 15 October

Men’s matches: Placement 5-8: 09:00, 10:40, Placement 11/12: 17:10, Placement 9/10: 18:50, Placement 7/8: 20:30

Women’s matches: Placement 5-8: 09:50, 11:30, Placement 11/12: 16:20, Placement 9/10: 18:00, Placement 7/8: 19:40

Wednesday 16 October

Men’s matches: Semi-Finals: 09:50, 11:30, Placement 5/6: 16:50, Bronze: 18:30, Final/Gold: 20:30
Women’s matches: Semi-Finals: 09:00, 10:40, Placement 5/6: 16:00, Bronze: 17:40, Final/Gold: 19:30

For more information on the event visit www.anocolympic.org.