The announcer on main court is a friend of jokes. One of his best: “The Russian army marches” he gets again and again in the microphone, when Russia is playing. But: The Russians marches indeed. With two victories on Wednesday the “Sbornaja” is really fixed for semi-final. The boys from the Black Sea won 2:0 against Spain and dominated then Egypt with the same result. “Now we will see what is going on”, Roman Kalashnikov said. The player with the great name is one of the Russian shooters. “But nobody in my family is related to the inventor of the machine gun”, Roman calms. The Russian do not need guns at the moment. The team is strong enough also without. The reason for it is easy to declare. The team graduated a three-weeks-trainings camp on Black Sea. We trained from noon to 2 pm, to get us used to the heat in the Oman, Kalashnikov said.

 

Also Croatia and the defending champion Brazil (six points after four matches each) are qualified for the round of the four best teams. After beaten Spain 2:1 the team from the Ukraine reached a final for qualification to semi final against Egypt in last main round match. The winner gets the ticket to the fight for the medals.

 

Brazil – the favourite for the title after preliminary round – showed weaknesses on the first day of the main round. The “Samba-Girls” had to break hard resistance against underdog Uruguay and won with 2:1 after shoot out. Then Croatia stopped the South Americans for first time with a 2:1 in the seventh match of the tournament. Nevertheless Brazil is already qualified for the semi final. The defending champion Norway has to fight for reaching medal matches. Norway won against Croatia but loss the “Scandinavian Championship” against Denmark after shoot out. So Denmark booked their prized ticket to semi final. Norway had to tremble but best chances to reach the semi final also. The battle will be dramatic. Croatia, Hungary and Uruguay are not out of competition.

 

Host Oman and Qatar going side on side in the placement round. Both won their first matches. With six points each the countries from the Gulf ranked on top. In woman’s competition Italy takes the lead with eight points and is already qualified for the placement match for the ninth rank on final day. Australia was also very happy about the victory against Poland. It was the first victory for a team from down under in a match with a European team on an IHF-tournament ever.