Women’s World Championship Preview
The Women Handball World Championship are well underway in Jiangsu, China as this event happens only every two years. There are 24 Women national teams gathered in Jiangsu to complete for the ultimate prize of being one of the best women handball teams of the world. The 24 teams are put into 4 different groups in the preliminary rounds and 3 teams from each group will qualify for the main rounds of the tournament. The main round will consist of two groups where the qualified team in the preliminary rounds will meet. Then they will go and fight it off in the Presidents Cup round before getting into Placement Rounds and the Final Round in Nanjing awaits them. The final will be played on the 20th of December and Russia are the current World Champions defending their title in China.
Russia
The defending World Champion, Russia, are in a group with Germany, France, Angola, Denmark and Austria. During the preliminary rounds, Russia was one of the three countries that won all of their five games. They are undefeated and they start out with a win against Germany in the main rounds of Group 1. They are one of the teams that are expected to advance to the latter stages of the competitions in group 1. The other favorites to go through with Russia to the next round are Denmark and France. Denmark are the second team in group 1 that has a good record in the tournament. They won 4 of their 5 games but lost to Sweden 27-23 in their final match in the preliminary group match.
Favorites
According to the bookies, the favorites for this tournament is Norway as they are the currently European champions. They beat Spain in the final in Macedonia 34-21 and they are heavy favorites to win the World Champions after losing to Russia two years ago in the final. Norway is one of the three countries that has won all of their games during the preliminary rounds. They are in a tough group as group 2 have South Korea, Romania, Hungary, Spain and the host, China. Norway will have to battle it out with Spain and South Korea for the top places in group 2. Spain are the biggest threat to the strong playing Norwegians, the Spanish are also undefeated in the tournament too, five wins in five games while South Korea lost one game to the Spanish, making them 4 wins out of 5. All three countries will certainly battle it out in the latter stages of this tournament.
Causalities
Two high flying countries are already sent packing back to Europe from the World Championship, Ukraine and Sweden were sent home in the preliminary group match. Both teams won three games and lost two but it is their overall score of goals that did not help them qualify in the end.
Verdict
Norway are the forerunners favorites to win the Women’s World Championship. They are better than Scandinavian neighbors, Denmark, and have also tactical better than the Russian. However, when it comes to the physical battle the Norwegians could be in the disadvantage when compared to the Romania and Russian. It could be a repeat of the Russia vs. Norway final two year ago but Denmark and Spain would be right up there as they look like outsiders.
