Having been champions in 14 of the 17 Asian Women’s Championships editions to date, it is business as usual for Republic of Korea to qualify for IHF Women’s World Championships.

Korea won the 17th Asian Women’s Championship in Kumamoto, Japan last December, going undefeated in their preliminary group then overcoming an eight-goal deficit against Kazakhstan in the semi-final 31:23. They then went on to defeat Japan 30:25 thanks to 11 goals from Ryu Eun Hee.

Cuba won all of their six games at the 2019 North American and the Caribbean Championship. They proved to be the most solid team in the region and booked a spot at Japan 2019 – which will be their fourth IHF Women’s World Championship.

“We want to make our best rank in history,” says coach Jorge Coll Arencibia, who started training the team in 2016, after a disappointing 23rd rank at Denmark 2015.

The Democratic Republic of Congo have appeared just twice at the IHF Women’s World Championship. They finished 20th at Serbia 2013 and last (24th) at Denmark 2015 with coach Celestin Mpoua Nkoua overseeing both of those finishes after taking the role back in 2012.

Since last December, Brazil collected two gold medals at continental level. They won the 2018 Women’s South and Central American Championship and a few months ago, they claimed gold at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games to secure a spot in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Results do not lie and Jorge Duenas can see how his team is growing. “We are improving our defensive system and therefore it’s every time harder for our opponents to score – we are using different players and we have a variety of resources and a bigger potential in defence than we used to have.

Australia are back at the IHF Women’s Handball World Championship. They secured their spot by placing 5th at the 2018 Asian Championship in Japan, winning their decisive game versus Iran 30:24.

Co-captain Sally Potocki is the most outstanding and experienced athlete in the Oceania side. She plays her club handball for HC TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga and has competed at two senior World Championships: France 2007 – at the early age of 18 – and Serbia 2013 – where she top scored for Australia with 48 goals.

“The evolution of the team in this last year was notable – in the physical, technical and tactical aspects. Also, their psychology,” says Argentina coach Eduardo Gallardo. There’s always a new challenge ahead for Dady, a well-known coach in South America after his decade as coach of the men’s side, which included two consecutive Olympic Games participations and multiple gold medals at continental tournaments.

Despite injecting youth into their team as part of their ‘Road to Tokyo 2020’ plan back in 2017, Angola’s women’s handball team (known as the ‘Pearls’) and their Danish coach Morten Soubak were rewarded with their lowest-ever rank in 14 appearances at an IHF Women’s World Championship – 19th place at Germany 2017.

The current world and European champions France stand out amid the tough competition for the 24th IHF Women’s World Championship trophy. As the holders of two of the most coveted major international titles, won in 2017 and 2018, as well as the silver medallists from the 2016 Olympic Games, France have enjoyed a spectacular few years. With no significant squad or coaching changes since the historic EHF EURO trophy was captured on home ground in Paris last December, the run shows no sign of slowing. 

Argentina’s women come to Qatar 2019 looking to round off an incredible year for women’s beach handball in the South American country.

On 13 October 2018 the youth women’s side won gold in the debut of beach handball at the Olympic Games defeating Croatia 2-0 (14:10, 18:16) in the final of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

Vietnam’s debut at the IHF Women’s Beach Handball Championship was impressive – a ninth-place finish at Kazan 2018 saw the Asian nation announce themselves on the global stage with wins against Mexico, Thailand, USA, France and Uruguay ensuring a top 10 finish. 

More impressively, perhaps, was a shoot-out loss against the dominant Brazilians in the main round, with Vietnam nearly causing a big upset after taking the second period against the South Americans – the first they had lost up to that point.