French handball players, crowned Olympic champions in Tokyo five days ago, inherited a group with Montenegro, Angola and Slovenia for the first round of the World Cup-2021 (2-19 December), according to the draw made Thursday evening in Castello (Spain) .
In the preliminary round of this first World Championship with 32 selections, the players of Olivier Krumbholz will meet the Montenegrins of Brestoise Djurdjina Jaukovic, as well as the Angolans, best African team and who narrowly missed the qualification for the quarter-finals in the Games, and Ana Gros’s Slovenia.
At Euro-2020 in December, on the road to the silver medal, the Blues had hardly dominated Montenegro (24-23) for their entry into the running, and had more clearly beaten Slovenia (27-17).
The French will have to finish in one of the top three places in this group to join the main round, where they will cross with the top three in a group comprising Russia, Serbia, Cameroon and Poland.
The reunion between French and Russians, Olympic champions and finalists in Tokyo, is therefore scheduled for the main round of this 2021 World Cup, which will be played in four cities in Spain (Granollers, Castello de la Plana, Lliria and Torreviejo).
Due to the health crisis, only 22 of the 32 teams that will compete in the 2021 World Cup in December are known.
The last ten qualifiers will be known at the end of the three continental championships which serve as qualifying tournaments. They will take place at the end of August for the North America and Caribbean zone (1 place), at the end of September for the Asia zone (6 places) and at the beginning of October for the Central and South America zone (3 places).
Composition of the preliminary round groups
To: France, Montenegro, Angola, Slovenia
B: Russia *, Serbia, Cameroon, Poland
C: Norway, Romania, Asia 3rd, Asia 4th
D: Netherlands, Sweden, AmNord 1st, Asia 5th
E: Germany, Hungary, Rep. Czech, Slovakia
F: Denmark, Asia 1st, Tunisia, Congo
G: Croatia, Asia 2nd, AmSud 1st, AmSud 3rd
H: Spain, Austria, AmSud 2, Asia 6th
*Russia operates under the name Russian Handball Federation, due to sanctions imposed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport following several doping scandals in Russian sport.
– .
