A busy summer of IHF World Championship events awaits handball fans as the 2018 IHF Women’s Youth, Women’s Junior and Beach Handball Men’s and Women’s World Championships all take place in Europe in July and August.
The 2018 IHF Women’s Youth World Championship will run from 7-19 August in the Polish city of Kielce, well known in handball for their VELUX EHF Champions League-winning team, who play at one of the two venues to be used this summer – the Legionów Hall (3,030 spectators) – along with the Politecnika Hall (1,000 spectators).
The formal signing of the co-operation and promotion agreement for the organisation of the championship was held in Kielce City Hall last week with the President of Kielce, Wojciech Lubawski and the President of the Polish Handball Federation (PHF), Andrzej Kraśnicki signing the document.
“This world championship is a chance to show the extremely rich achievements of the city of Kielce in handball and the great achievements of its athletes,” said Kraśnicki.
“Athletes and fans from all around the world will come to the city this year in an event which would not be possible without the support and involvement of the city authorities and I also want to thank the support from the Kielce University of Technology.
“The tournament in Kielce has more significant importance as it is part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of handball in Poland. The organisation of youth events is also an important stage of preparation for the IHF Men’s World Championships, which will be organised by Poland and Sweden in 2023.”
The signing was also attended by Vice President and Director of the PHF’s office Henryk Szczepański, Vice President of the PHF and Chairman of the Świętokrzyskie Handball Federation Grzegorz Budziosz. and PHF’s Director of External Relations and Director of the Tournament, Damian Drobik.
24 teams from across the world will be competing for the title, with the final draw set to take place in April which will feature these 20 teams already qualified: GER, NOR, KOR, HUN, FRA, RUS, DEN, ROU, POL, ESP, CHN, EGY, TUN, SWE, NED, MNE, JPN, KAZ, SVK and ANG. Four further places are still to be confirmed.
Poland 2018 have also launched their official tournament website (in Polish and English) at:http://handballpoland2018.pl along with a Twitter handle @handball2018 and the hashtags #handballpolska #handball2018.