Today, all eyes of the handball world were on Copenhagen as the draw for the 2019 IHF Men’s World Championship (10-27 January) was staged in the Town Hall of Denmark’s capital.

 

After the opening speeches from IHF President Dr Hassan Moustafa and the Mayor of Culture and Leisure of Copenhagen, Niko Grünfield, representatives of the Germany/Denmark 2019 Organising Committee welcomed everyone to Copenhagen, first Andreas Michelmann, President of the German Handball Association, then Jan Kampman, Vice-President of the Danish Handball Federation.

 

In his speech, Dr Moustafa stressed again the importance of a unified team of Korea at the Men’s World Championship in order to unite people and bring them together through the power of sports. Last week, it was announced that the opening match should be played by Germany and the unified Korean team in Berlin and DHB President Michelmann confirmed that “no other city in the world can better demonstrate the positive spirit and the advantages of a re-united nation.”

 

Following the description of the draw procedure, the draw was conducted by Per Bertelsen, Chairman of the IHF Commission of Organising and Competitions (COC), assisted by three of the ambassadors of the event – Dominik Klein, Stefan Kretzschmar and Heiner Brand – as well as players of the Danish national team – Mads Mensah Larsen, Lasse Svan and Niklas Landin.

 

The result of the draw is as follows:

 

Group A (Berlin): France, Russia, Germany, Serbia, Brazil, Korea

Group B (Munich): Spain, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Bahrain, Japan,

Group C (Herning): Denmark, Norway, Austria, Tunisia, Chile, Saudi Arabia

Group D (Copenhagen): Sweden, Hungary, Qatar, Argentina, Egypt, Angola

 

Denmark’s coach Nikolaj Jacobsen was satisfied with the result after all groups were known. However, according Jacobsen, in general “all the teams are getting closer. It’ll be a tough World Championship.”

 

“We are in a tough group A, with world champions France,” said Christian Prokop, Germany national team coach. “We need to play our best and we need to work hard so that we can manage to have a very good position for the main round.”

 

After the draw, the mascot of the 2019 Men’s World Championship was revealed. ‘Stan’, designed by Denpe from Indonesia, is a modern handball super hero from planet GD19.

 

Furthermore it was announced that for the World Championship, the organisers have teamed up with Danish DJ Kongsted to create the official song together with a German artist yet to be announced.  

 

For more information on the 26th IHF Men’s World Championship visit www.handball19.com.

 

Photos: Jan Christensen