Men: Venezuela (VEN)

Coach: Octavio SANCHEZ

Key Players: Rainner SEIJAS (specialist), Alvaro TORRES (goalkeeper)

Path to Buenos Aires 2018: 2017 IHF Men’s U17 Beach Handball World Championship - 5th

Overview

The past two major international tournaments have proved very fruitful for the young Venezuelan team and they will be hoping that they return home to the very north of the South American continent with something to celebrate from the far south.

 

Their third place gained at the Pan American Youth Beach Handball championship in February last year meant a ticket to the 2017 IHF Men’s U17 Beach Handball World Championship in Mauritius, and with a preparation period in Spain and Portugal consisting of 16 warm-up games, their pre-tournament goal of qualification to Buenos Aires and a top eight place as announced by then coach Christopher Timaure was achieved.

 

Most impressively, they bested the Russian men 2:1 in the preliminary group with a tense shoot-out win and then defeated Togo 2:0, but a 2:1 loss to Thailand in their opening match meant they went through to the main round in second place. A surprise 2:1 loss to Pakistan was followed up by a strong 2:0 victory over fellow Asian side Chinese Taipei and then a 2:0 defeat of hosts Mauritius.

 

That meant the top eight place had been confirmed – and a ticket for Argentina, but the dream of a podium place in Africa slipped away as they lost 2:0 against Italy in the quarter-finals.

 

Venezuela managed to recover from that disappointment to beat Portugal 2:0 in the first match of the 5-8 placement round and then they followed that up with a second win over Chinese Taipei on a shoot-out to finish fifth. They also claimed one of the tournament’s deadliest strikers – specialist Rainner Seijas scored 134 points to finish in second overall.

 

In Buenos Aires, Venezuela will face continental rivals Uruguay as well as the familiar foes in Chinese Taipei and Thailand. They start and end their preliminary round against European teams – Hungary and world champions Spain.

 

Group at Buenos Aires 2018
Group A: Spain (ESP), Venezuela (VEN), Chinese Taipei (TPE), Thailand (THA), Uruguay (URU), Hungary (HUN)

Preliminary Group A: Match Schedule
All times local

Monday 8 October

12:30    VEN vs HUN

17:00    THA vs VEN

 

Tuesday 9 October

10:00    VEN vs TPE

14:30    VEN vs URU

 

Wednesday 10 October

12:30    ESP vs VEN