Lolowa Al-Meghaiseeb
The
draw of handball and football events at the ANOC World Beach Games, Qatar 2019 was
held at the QOC headquarters today.
The international multi-sport event is
organised by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) and hosted
by the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC).
The draw was attended by QOC Secretary
General Jassim bin Rashid Al Buenain, ANOC Secretary General Ms. Gunilla
Lindberg and representatives of the participating international federations.
Qatar National Men’s beach handball team
has been drawn in Group B with Croatia, Hungary, Spain, Uruguay and Tunisia.
The men’s Handball event will bring
together 12 teams, namely Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Hungary,
Oman, Sweden, Tunisia, Uruguay, USA and hosts Qatar while women’s event will
see 12 teams, namely Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Spain,
Greece, Hungary, Poland, Tunisia, USA and Vietnam.
Moreover, 16 teams will participate in
Men’s football event.
Brazil, El Salvador, Spain, Iran, Italy, Japan,
Morocco, Mexico, Paraguay, Russia, Solomon Islands, Switzerland, UAE, Ukraine,
Uruguay and Senegal will contest in the men’s event while women’s event will
feature athletes from Brazil, Cape Verde, Spain, Britain, Mexico, Paraguay,
Russia and USA.
The football events will be held at Katara
beach while the handball events will be staged in Al Gharafa.
Qatar beach handball team is the current
champion and the dominant force in Asia having claimed the title of the Asian
Beach Handball Championships for the fifth time in a row (2011, 2013, 2015,
2017 and 2019).
They have also won bronze medal at the IHF
World Championships (2014 and 2016) on two occasions.
The national beach volleyball team also
made their Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Games while Qatar’s 3x3 basketball
team have won the Asian Basketball Beach Games twice - Phuket 2014 and Danang
2016.