The 2018 Pan American Men’s Handball Championship will take place in Nuuk, Greenland from June 16 to 24, with the continental champions to be determined, alongside the final three places at the 26th IHF Men’s World Championship in Germany and Denmark. 12 teams will contest the Pan American Championship, where Brazil will aim to defend the title won in 2016.

 

At the previous edition, three-time Pan American champions Brazil reclaimed the title from Argentina after winning their first two trophies in 2006 and 2008. Argentina are the only other side since 2000 to have won the Pan American title, taking the gold medal six times out of the last nine editions. Prior to the Brazil and Argentina’s period of dominance in the continent, Cuba were the unrivalled champions, winning eight consecutive trophies from 1979 to 1998.

 

All three sides will contest the 2018 event, alongside hosts Greenland and automatic qualifiers Chile. Brazil and Argentina were the other automatically qualified sides, while the remaining eight teams made their way through qualification tournaments. Guatemala secured their place via the Central American Games; Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay qualified from the South Zone; and Canada, Cuba and Puerto Rico claimed the three places available at the North American and Caribbean tournament.

 

The 12 teams are split into two groups, with the top two sides qualifying for the semi-finals. Chile, Argentina, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Peru will play in Group A; Brazil, Uruguay, Greenland, Canada, Colombia and Paraguay will play in Group B.

 

Ahead of the 2018 Pan American Championship, seven teams played the 2018 South American Games, which saw the two top-ranked sides book their tickets to the 2019 Pan American Games. Brazil won the gold medal at the event, beating Argentina 25:22 in the final – their 37th win in official matches against Argentina. Argentina have not beaten Brazil in official games since the 2014 Pan American Championship final (30:19) in Uruguay.

 

At the South American Games, Chile won the bronze medal, Uruguay finished fourth, Venezuela ranked fifth, Peru placed sixth and Bolivia were seventh.

 

Argentina will play the 2018 Pan American Championship without recently crowned VELUX EHF Champions League winner Diego Simonet. The centre back, who became the first non-European selected as MVP of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 at the end of May, was injured at the South American Games.

 

More information on the Pan American Championship can be found on the official website. All matches will be streamed live on YouTube.