Hosts take the honours in ‘Qatar International Friendly Championship’

Home team Qatar, along with continental rivals Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran were all in Doha last week competing in the round-robin ‘Qatar International Friendly Championship’ held across three days.

A total of six games took place at the Duhail Hall – one of the venues for the 2015 IHF Men’s World Championship – with the host nation winning all three games to finish top of the group.

All four teams will be competing at the 2022 AHF Men’s Asian Championships, set to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in January. The top five teams in that championship will qualify directly for the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship in Poland and Sweden.

Valero Rivera’s side easily defeated Kuwait (32:19) in their opener, before Saudi Arabia (25:18) and Iran (35:24). Kuwait finished second after finishing on two points, the same as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Rivera has already announced his provisional list for Saudi Arabia 2022. It features 23 players including Rafael Capote, Daniel Saric and Frankis Carol Marzo. Qatar will be looking to win their fifth successive continental title, having grabbed gold in the 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 editions.

Qatar International Friendly Championship

Results

Tuesday 2 November
KSA vs IRI 16:24 (7:13)
QAT vs KUW 32:19 (18:13)

Thursday 4 November
KUW vs IRI 32:27 (16:12)
QAT vs KSA 25:18 (13:10)

Saturday 6 November
KSA vs KUW 29:28 (14:13)
QAT vs IRI 35:24 (19:11)

Final Ranking

1 Qatar 
2 Kuwait
3 Iran
4 Saudi Arabia

Table

Nation	P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
Qatar	3	3	0	0	92	61	+31	6
Kuwait	3	1	0	2	79	88	-9	2
Iran	3	1	0	2	75	83	-8	2
Saudi Arabia	3	1	0	2	63	77	-14	2

           
      

Qatar Handball Association elections

Last week, the Qatar Handball Association (QHA) elected their Board of Directors for the next four years (until 2024) at their Ordinary General Assembly in Doha.
Members of the QHA Board of Directors and club representatives were in attendance alongside Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) representation and QHA President Ahmed Mohammed Al-Shaabi.

The board was expanded from five to seven members after a vote was taken to approve the appointment two new members “in order to ease the burden of the many tasks assigned to the current council members in managing the affairs of the game,” according to the QHA website.

In other Qatar handball news, the country will host the 24th edition of AHF Men’s Asian Club League Championship, scheduled to be held from 18 to 27 June 2022. The competition acts as a qualification event for the IHF Men’s Super Globe.

2022 will be the fifth time that Qatar will host the tournament after the 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 editions.

Photos: Qatar Handball Association