Argentina and Brazil Youth Teams Close the Gap

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At the recent Men’s Youth Handball Championships (under 19) in Bahrain, Argentina and Brazil demonstrated that these nations have closed the gap traditionally separating the rest of the world from Europe. Argentina placed 4th in the tournament with 3 wins, 2 ties and 2 losses. They didn’t do so well in the medal round, but their two ties against Croatia and Poland in pool play could very well have ended up as wins .

Brazil also had a good tournament. They didn’t make it out of their initial pool losing to the hosts Bahrain and the eventual champion Denmark 25-22, but they dominated the lower bracket with 3 straight wins to finish 9th.

Not to be forgotten Egypt also had a strong tournament, finishing 5th and Bahrain, probably benefiting from hosting the tournament placed 8th.

What will be interesting to see is whether Brazil and Argentina can continue to develop this young talent at the same pace as the Europeans. Time will tell as to whether in a few years from now their Senior Teams can also make it through to the main round at a Senior Men World Championships.

Results Summary: http://wch07live.ihf.info/exchange/bahrain/pdf/SUMMARY.pdf
IHF Home Page for the Youth World Championships: http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idart=768

4 thoughts on “Argentina and Brazil Youth Teams Close the Gap”

  1. How did North Africa/Middle East have 7 of the 16 teams in this tournament? 5 of these teams ended up in the lower bracket. You would think Europe would have had more countries that would have been more competitive. See Jr World Championships.

  2. While the North Africa/Middle East are culturally similar they don't have to beat each other to qualify. The 4 North African teams usually dominate African competitions and the Gulf States usually do pretty well for Asia qualifications. The break out was

    Europe: 5
    Africa: 4
    Asia: 4
    PATHF: 2
    Oceania: 1

    I expect that the more even continental spread is intentional to support worldwide development. This makes good sense for these age groups.

  3. It is great to help development. very nice to not let Europe hog all the spots and get all the experience in the Youth Tournament. I could not help noting that the JR Tournament in Macedonia going on right now has:
    Europe – 12
    Africa – 3
    Asia – 2
    PATHF – 3
    Oceania – 0

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