In July 2018, the world’s 24 best women’s junior teams meet in Debrecen, Hungary to crown their champions. Eagerly awaited, the groups for the 2018 IHF Women’s Junior (U20) World Championship were drawn today at the IHF Head Office in Basle, Switzerland.

 

After a short introduction, in which IHF Competitions Director Patric Strub explained the draw procedure, Per Bertelsen, Chairman of the IHF Commission of Organising and Competitions, started with pot 4, being assisted by Zsófia Hársfalvi, Junior Project Manager of the Hungarian Handball Federation (HHF). According to the results of the draw, the teams in pots 5 and 6 were assigned to the Groups A-D in rows 5 and 6, respectively.

 

After the teams in pot 3 were drawn to Groups A-D in row 3 and the teams in pot 2 were drawn to groups A-D in row 2, hosts Hungary had the prerogative to assign themselves a group of their choice in row 1.

 

As it became clear that Groups C and D would be rather strong, the decision was not that difficult for the hosts as Vladimir Golovin, head coach of the Hungary team, said: “We can be satisfied with the draw, since it came up at the very early stage of the event that Group C and D are the strongest, even Group D with five European teams. Therefore we would like to choose the other ‘end’, and we chose Group A, in which we would like to finish at the first position. Based upon the chances, we can continue the tournament against Slovenia or China in the eight-finals. We start the world championship against Brazil, then we meet with Ivory Coast, Portugal, Montenegro and Norway, so we play against even stronger and stronger opponents before the knockout phase.”

 

At the end, the remaining teams in pot 1 were drawn to Groups A-D in row 1, leading to the following result:

 

Group A: HUN, NOR, MNE, BRA, POR, CIV

 

Group B: RUS, KOR, SLO, CHN, CHI, ISL

 

Group C: DEN, NED, ROU, ANG, JPN, PAR

 

Group D: FRA, GER, ESP, CRO, EGY, SWE

 

The hosts are looking forward to the event. “We are very proud that we can be the host country of the U20 women’s world event, after the 2016 Beach Handball World Championship and we will also be the organiser of the 2021 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship,” said HHF Secretary General András Novák. “We prepare for welcome 24 teams and all the players, referees, officials and IHF representatives in Hungary this July and we would also like to create an unforgettable atmosphere in the arenas together with the spectators.”

 

Visit www.hungaryhandball2018.hu to find out more.