Caitlin Dillon
During an Asian Handball Federation Executive Committee
meeting held in Doha, Qatar was chosen to host the Asian men’s qualification matches
for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The qualification round will run from the
17th to the 27th of October 2019.
The meeting was held on the side-lines of the IHF Super
Globe, in the presence of Ahmed Al Shaabi, President of the Qatar Handball
Association and Vice President of the AHF, as well as other executive members including those from Japan, Pakistan and Kuwait.
This is the second time in a row the country has been given
the honour of hosting the men’s handball qualification tournament for the
Summer Olympics. In 2015, Qatar held the qualifiers for the 2016 Olympic Games
in Rio, during which Qatar’s handball team qualified for the first time. China was also chosen to host the Women’s handball
qualifiers next September, as well as the 7th Asian Beach Handball
Championships in March.
The meeting acted as a follow-up to the federation’s
previous meeting, held in Kuwait last August. The final reports of the
2017-2018 Asian Championships were reviewed, as well as the schedule of AHF
activities for the coming year. The committee also finalised their review of
South Korea’s match against Iraq during the 8th Asian Youth
Championships in Jordan in September. Both teams were disqualified from the
competition last month, over charges of match-throwing, after they tried to
lose their game and set up a favourable draw in the quarterfinals. A fine of $30,000 has now been imposed on both sides.