Uzbekistan qualified for the IHF Women's World Championship for the second time in history and for the first time in 24 years. The current players of the Uzbek team do not have any experience at this level, but they are going to Spain hoping to be competitive.

In 1997, Uzbekistan finished 21st at the World Championship in Germany, splitting the points with Canada and losing four other matches in the group. And after that, they failed to qualify for the global stage for more than two decades.

The 2019 IHF Women’s World Championship in Japan brought back strong memories for fans of Korean women’s handball – their preliminary group campaign saw them finish top and unbeaten for the first time since Germany 1997, a championship where they eventually ranked fifth.

That top-five finish followed on from the same preliminary group result in the previous edition – Austria/Hungary 1995 – where they became the first non-European champions of the competition.

For the sixth time, Kazakhstan will take part in an IHF Women’s World Championship, trying to secure a better performance than 18th place, their highest finish in the competition, clinched at their maiden appearance in 2007.

The Kazakh side have only missed playing at the world’s premium competition once (Germany 2017) since their first championship but are eyeing their best-ever finish, provided they can secure a main round berth in a group which is also featuring Norway, Romania and fellow Asian side Iran.

In preparation for hosting the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Japan were on home court at the last edition of the IHF Women’s World Championship, prompting a superb performance, which yielded their best finish in the competition since 1971. They dazzled their opponents with their free-flowing, fast paced handball, securing their second win against a European side in their history in the competition, a 37:20 drubbing of Romania.