Caribbean nations are currently competing in the Dominican Republic.
The Caribbean Cup Handball Tournament started yesterday in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. This tournament is the Caribbean region qualification event for next year’s Central and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico. Nations participating in the Men’s tournament are the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Mexico. The Women’s tournament has the same nations, minus Mexico. Haiti and Venezuela had indicated that they were going to participate, but pulled out shortly before the tournament. The result of this is that the 4 qualification slots will automatically be awarded to the nations attending. (Mexico had already qualified as host.)
In yesterday’s action, the Cuban Men returned to International competition in fine style with a relatively easy victory over Mexico, 31-22. The second men’s match between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico was suspended due to water leaking on to the court and will be restarted later today. The Dominican Republic was leading 5-3 after 11 minutes played. In the sole women’s match the Dominican Republic women easily defeated Puerto Rico, 30-17.
Although the tournament will have no bearing on qualification it will serve as preview of next year’s Central American & Caribbean Games. As the Central American sides are relatively new to handball in all likelihood the nations participating in this all Caribbean tournament will be the same ones fighting for the 3 PANAM Games slots next November in Mexico. In particular, it will be interesting to see how well the Cuban Men and Women perform in this competition.
USA Team Handball followers might also get a good idea as to which 2 nations they might play against in the the 2nd chance qualification tournament in 2015 for the PANAM Games. The 4th and 5th place nations from this region, the 4th place nation from South America and the U.S. will battle for the 8th and final spot for the 2015 PANAM Games sometime in early 2015. (For more information on 2016 Olympic Games Qualification check the links on the right hand side of the page.)
For more information and to follow the Caribbean Cup competition check out the links below.
Standings and results Wiki (Mundo Handball): Link
Live Stream and on demand highlights: Link