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.

When India open their account at the 2024 IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championships in Egypt later this month, they will make history as the only nation to have appeared at all three editions of the world championships.

With the Netherlands’ not qualifying this time around, India will be the only nation to have been present at Egypt 2024 and the two previous editions held – both in 2022, with one in the six-a-side version of the game (held in Portugal) and one of the four-a-side version (held in Egypt).

The United States of America enter the global Wheelchair Handball family at Egypt 2024 and find themselves in preliminary group A alongside fellow debutants France and Japan, plus title-holders Brazil.

Exactly two years ago Egypt lost the four-a-side 2022 IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship final against Brazil at home after they took the South American side to a shoot-out.

Now, in 2024, is it time for the host nation to rise up the medal rankings and take gold in front of their fans?

Coach Wael Aly, who oversaw that silver medal ranking in their debut event, certainly hopes so, but knows it will be tough, starting with their preliminary group which features India, plus four-a-side debutants Chile and Portugal.

Chile return for their second, successive four-a-side IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship hoping to at least repeat their fourth-placed finish at Egypt 2022.

Two years ago, Chile had a mixed preliminary round, winning two and losing three – against Netherlands (0-2), India (2-0), Egypt (0-2), Slovenia (2-0) and Brazil (0-2) – but this was enough to secure a bronze medal play-off against Slovenia.

Japan finally make their debut on the global Wheelchair Handball stage as they get ready to appear in Cairo at the third edition of the IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship.

Late last year, the Japan Wheelchair Handball Federation (JWHF) held the 21st edition of the Japan Wheelchair Handball National Championship in Sakai City, with the 22nd edition set to take place in Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture this coming November.

Thanks to one of the longest relationships with Wheelchair Handball, dating back well over 30 years, it was no surprise that Brazil took the debut four-a-side IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship by storm.

At Egypt 2022 they won all five of their preliminary round games 2-0 (against Slovenia, Netherlands, India, Egypt and Chile) before seeing off the hosts again, this time in the final, 2-1 (8:3, 6:7, 6:3).