CHAIRMAN: DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: DR. KHALID MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

Sports / Qatar Sport

Qatar beat Uruguay in play-off to qualify for World Beach Games

Published: 27 Jun 2022 - 11:47 am | Last Updated: 27 Jun 2022 - 11:50 am
Qatar players and officials at the IHF Beach Handball Championship in Greece.

Qatar players and officials at the IHF Beach Handball Championship in Greece.

Chinthana Wasala | The Peninsula

Qatar yesterday defeated Uruguay 2-0 (19-18, 18-16) to sign off with fifth place at the 2022 International Handball Federation (IHF) Beach Handball Championship in Greece and book a berth in the next year’s ANOC World Beach Games.

Ahmed Hassan Mohamed (12), Nowraddine Denguir Amir (9) and Marwan Kakhi Hani (10) did well in scoring goals while veteran goalkeeper Mohsen Mohammed Alyafeai played his part in an impressive manner to ensure Al Annabi’s win at the Karteros Beach Sports Center in Heraklion, Crete in the play-off.

With yesterday’s win, the five-time Asian champions booked a ticket to Bali, Indonesia where the next edition of the World Beach Games takes place from August 5-12 in 2023.

The multi-sport event, last hosted by Qatar in 2019, is organised by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). The other Asian team at this year’s Worlds, continental champions Iran were placed ninth after defeating Portugal in straight periods.

Meanwhile, Croatia clinched the World Championship title when they sealed a 2-0 (24-22, 21-18) win over Denmark in yesterday’s final.

Five-time world champions Brazil secured the bronze medal after overcoming hosts Greece in straight periods (15-18, 18-24).

The South American heavyweights have now secured podium spots in eight out of nine appearances at the Beach Handball World Championships since 2004.

Earlier, in the first session of the day, debutants Norway played Spain for seventh place, Argentina the United States of America for 12th and another debutant team, Puerto Rico, played Egypt for 15th place.

All three matches ended in straight 2-0 periods, with Egypt, Argentina and Spain claiming the wins.

This means that Argentina and USA finish in the same place as at the last edition - 11th and 12th respectively.