The IHF Trophy Central Asia will be held from June 23 to 27 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with five nations contesting the event for Youth and Junior men’s national teams. The line-up in the Youth age category includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, while Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will play the Junior competition.

 

The Youth competition will see a series of round-robin matches, with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan opening the tournament with the first match on June 23. In the Junior Trophy, the ranking among the top four teams will be decided in a final and bronze-medal match, for which the top four nations qualify directly from the round-robin games. All matches will be held at Universal Sport Complex “Dostyk”.

 

The winners of the two titles will qualify for the Continental Phase and hope to make it from there to the Intercontinental Phase. The gold medallists at the Intercontinental Phase will qualify directly for the 2019 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship in Spain. In 2019, the IHF Trophy will be contested by women’s teams, who will follow the same qualification pathway toward the Intercontinental Phase and 2020 Junior World Championship.

 

Several IHF Trophy competitions have already been held this year, including tournaments in seven zones in Africa, the Oceania Trophy, two events in Asia, and the North America and Caribbean Zone tournament.

 

IHF technical delegates from Russia, Croatia, Republic of Korea and Japan will officiate the 2018 IHF Trophy Central Asia, while IHF referees will travel from Saudi Arabia and Russia, whistling alongside a local pair from Kazakhstan.

 

MATCH SCHEDULE

 

Youth competition

 

23 June

14:00 KAZ-KGZ

20:00 UZB-KGZ

 

24 June

16:00 KAZ-UZB

 

25 June

16:00 UZB-KGZ

 

26 June

16:00 KAZ-KGZ

 

27 June

16:00 UZB-KAZ

 

Junior competition

 

23 June

16:00 TJK-UZB

18:00 KAZ-TKM

 

24 June

18:00 UZB-KAZ

20:00 TKM-TJK

 

25 June

18:00 TKM-UZB

20:00 KAZ-TJK

 

26 June

18:00 Bronze-medal match

 

27 June

18:00 Final