The very best male and female beach handball teams from Asia will
descend upon Pattaya, Thailand for a week from 8-14 May to decide the champions
of Asia.
Back in March, the draw took place at the Asian Handball
Federation headquarters in Kuwait and the preliminary round groups are now
known.
Male competition – draw results
Group A
Qatar
Oman
Uzbekistan
Chinese Taipei
Group B
Iran
Thailand
Vietnam
UAE
Afghanistan
The female competition will be played on a round-robin basis with
China, Vietnam, Thailand and Chinese Taipei participating.
Aside from the incentive of being crowned Kings or Queens of their
continent, the top four teams in the men's category and the top
three teams in the women's category will book their place for the 2018 IHF
World Beach Handball Championships, set to be held in Sochi, Russia.
The previous editions of the tournament for men saw it take place
in Muscat, Oman (2004), then Bandar Abbas in Iran (2007), Muscat again (2011),
Hong Kong (2013) and Oman, again for the third time in 2015, in Muscat again.
The women participated in 2004, 2013 and 2015.
In the men's competition, Oman beat Bahrain to take the title in
2004 and then Pakistan beat hosts Iran in 2007. But then came Qatar, who have
won the title the past three times, in 2011, 2013 and 2015, beating Oman in the
final on all three occasions. Pakistan took bronze in 2004, Japan finished
third in 2007, Kuwait in 2011 and Bahrain have grabbed the final podium sport
in the past two events, in 2013 and 2015.
For the women, the dominant team has been Thailand in recent years
as the side from South Asia have taken the title in the past two editions,
beating Chinese Taipei in both the 2013 and 2015 finals, China and Vietnam
finished in bronze spot in 2013 and 2015 respectively.
The first edition for women, in 2004, was won by Japan, who beat
Hong Kong in the final.
For more information visit the Asian Handball Federation website
at: www.asianhandball.org.