search

Handball: Qatar ready for ‘tough battles’ at World Championship

Handball: Qatar ready for ‘tough battles’ at World Championship

The Peninsula

Asian champions Qatar will be aiming to top the preliminary group when they commence their campaign at this month’s Men’s World Handball Championship in Egypt. This was said by Dr Ahmed Al Shaa’bi, President of the Qatari Handball Federation (QHF), as Qatar geared up for their opening game at the Jan 13 to 31 tournament. Qatar are set to open the group phase against Angola on January 15. Qatar - the 2015 World Championship runners-up - take on Japan on January 17.

In the third clash, Qatar will face Croatia on January 19. Dr Al Shaa’bi said Qatar will aiming ‘to be among the top 10 teams’ after the national squad's busy training sessions since the start of December. Qatar played a series of international friendlies and a Four-Nation at home.

“We must aim to win the three matches in the first phase because any loss will make our mission difficult in the second round. Therefore it is important to lead the group in order to maintain our chances and rhythm in the second stage,” Dr Al Shaa’bi said in an interview.  

“Despite the difficulties we have faced in our preparation, nothing can diminish our desire to achieve better results,” he said. “Matches at the World Championship, in general, remain difficult for all participating teams and competing against the best sides is not easy at all,” he added. “The World Championship is the strongest competition and we always prepare for it well, but this time the preparation was not in the required manner. Our preparation was not at the level we were keen to have due to the circumstances that world sport has experienced as a result of the Corona pandemic sweeping the globe,” he said. 

In recent years, Qatar have established themselves as the dominant Asian force. Qatar have won the Asian title thrice and reached the World Championship final on home soil in 2015. 

“We wanted to play a big number of friendly matches against strong teams, but we were not able to do so due to the COVID-19 situation. The matches that the national team played were limited. We played friendly matches against Tunisia, Argentina and Spain,” he said. 

The QHF President said the impact of the Corona pandemic on the preparations of other teams, especially European sides, is relatively less ‘as they have strong competitive leagues’. 

“Usually we try to cover this big difference in preparation against our European rivals by conducting long overseas camps and bringing in prominent professionals at our clubs, but this did not happen in the last season (in Qatar) and therefore our rivals have the advantage in the World Championship,” he said. 

He explained that the presence of Spanish coach Valero Rivera ‘is one of the positive factors’ for Qatar squad. He said coach Rivera knows the rival teams, their players and tactics. Dr Al Shaa’bi said Qatar being among the top 10 teams in the world would be a good achievement for the national squad. 

“We are facing great challenges after we reached the World Championship (Qatar 2015) final. We cannot deny that the teams in our World Championship group - Croatia, Japan and Angola -  are tough opponents,” he said.