Despite a second place finish at the preliminary round, Egypt made it to the main draw of the three-week World Handball Juniors Championship, Inas Mazhar reports The preliminary round of the 17th event of the World Handball Juniors Championship is over. The competition is now set to go into its more serious stages as the 12 qualifiers enter the main draw. Three teams from each of the four groups made it to the main draw which starts off today in Cairo and Suez. The 12 teams are now divided into two groups of six teams each, and they will battle it out for the coming three days at the Cairo Stadium indoor complex. Group One includes Germany, Egypt, Argentina, Brazil, France and Spain qualifiers from groups A and B in the preliminary stage. Group Two comprises Slovenia, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, Portugal and the Czech Republic. In Group One Argentina will face Brazil while Germany takes on France. Egypt, the host nation, will face Spain. In Group Two Sweden will face the Czech Republic, while Estonia will clash against Denmark and Slovenia meets Portugal. In line with competition regulations throw-off times in Group One are 16:30, 18:30 and 20:30. Egypt will play at 20:30. Throw-off times in Group Two are 14:30, 16:30 and 18:30. The competition management will decide which match will be held at what time. Throw-off times may be changed at any time by the management. At the same time placement matches will all take place today. The other 12 teams will play six matches in Suez. Three matches will be played in Mubarak Stadium and the other three at El-Nasr Petroleum. Iceland will face Norway while Holland will take on Belarus. Winners of these two matches will then play off for the 13th and 14th places, while the losers will play for the 15th and 16th places. Qatar faces Iran while Greenland takes on Algeria. Winners of these two matches will play for the 17th and 18th places while losers will play for the 19th and 20th places. Kuwait meanwhile will play against Tunisia and Libya and Morocco will face each other. The winners of these two matches will play for the 21st and 22nd places whereas the losers will play for the 23rd and 24th places. Tuesday marked the end of the preliminary round of the World Handball Juniors Championship. The results of the final day's matches of the preliminary round were decisive as they decided which 12 teams would make it to the main draw. In Group One at Cairo stadium; Iceland beat Qatar 35-23 in what was described as a foreseeable result. The surprise of the tournament came when Kuwait finally managed to win a match as they beat Argentina 26-25 in the last seconds of the match. Surprisingly, the Kuwaitis have been leading by two goals throughout the match. Unfortunately the home team Egypt failed to please the crowds who had filled the stadium as they lost 28-29 to Germany in the last second. The Egyptians were desperate for the victory but committed some mistake which had prevented them the win and leading the group. Egypt was so successful winning four matches in a row against Iceland, Argentina, Qatar and Kuwait until the final day of the group stages. Developments in Group One after the preliminary round placed Germany on top of the group with eight points ahead of Egypt, which was placed second. The Egyptians also won eight points but they lost the lead on goal difference. Argentina was placed third with six points. Iceland came fourth while Qatar and Kuwait came in the fifth and sixth places. Each had two points from one win each. In Group Two in Suez, Brazil beat Norway 31-24, ending Norwegian hopes in qualifying to the main round. Iran outclassed Tunisia 38-26 while Spain surprised all by beating France 27-25. The Brazilians lead the group standing with eight points from four wins and one defeat. France and Spain are placed second and third with six points each, but the French lead on goal difference. Norway was placed fourth though winning six points. Iran came fifth and Tunisia sixth. Port Said, venue of Group Three, continued to witness truly thrilling matches as they saw Greenland achieve their first win in the tournament when they beat Libya 27-26. Slovenia maintained their supremacy with a 37-30 victory over Netherlands and the Swedes showed how determined they are to defend their title as they beat Estonia 37-27. After playing five matches in the preliminary round Slovenia are in the lead having won all of their five matches and winning 10 points. Title holders Sweden are placed second with eight points from four wins. Estonia followed in the third place with six points from three wins. The Netherlands, Greenland and Libya were placed from the fourth to the sixth places respectively. The Dutch won four points, Greenland two while the Libyans failed to win a single point. In Group Four in Cairo, Belarus beat Morocco 31-22 while the Czech defeated Algeria 29-33 and Denmark ended Portugal's winning streak as they beat them 25-22. Accordingly, the Danes collected 10 points to lead the top of the standings of Group Four. Portugal was placed second with eight points followed by the Czech Republic in the third place with four points. Belarus failed to join the top three qualifiers. Though it won four points Belarus was placed fourth ahead of Algeria who won three points and came fifth and Morocco who was placed at the bottom of the table with only one point.
