Several times the big success was in Iran’s grasp but every time it slipped away. With a third place at the Asian Championship in Bahrain the dream of the first participation in a WCh in the history of Iranian handball has finally come true. But once again it was really close and on a knife-edge. In the end the goal difference decided that Iran and not defending champion Korea could continue. In the semi-finals they kept up a long time with later Asian Champion Korea – and when they played the United Arab Emirates to win third place they clearly won 29:23 and could celebrate not only their first medal but also the participation in the WCh. At the Asian Games Iran had already won a medal twice (in 2006 and 2010) – however it was not the WCh qualification event. In Bahrain, Iran even had to play without its star player: Iman Jamali, who is contracted to the Hungarian top club MKB Veszprem and was top scorer at the 2011 Men’s Junior WCh in Greece. At the WCh in Qatar, Jamali will join the Iranian team. And a new coach will be at the sideline: After leading Iran to the WCh, the Spaniard Rafael Guijosa (World Handball Player of the Year 1999) was replaced by the Slovenian Borut Macek, who had already coached the Iranians from 2010 to 2011 and last was national coach of the Qatar team as predecessor of Valero Rivera.

 

World Championship campaigns: - 

Olympic campaigns: - 

Asian Championship campaigns:  2006: 4., 2008: 4., 2014: BRONZE

Qualification for Qatar: Bronze medallist at Asian Championship

Coach: Borut Macek

Key players: Iman Jamali, Allahkaram Esteki