The USA women are currently in Havana, Cuba for the Women’s Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) Div 1 Championship. This mini-tournament has 3 nations, USA, Cuba and Venezuela competing for 2 spots in next year’s PATHF Elite Championships. As expected, Cuba has already easily dispatched Venezuela (36-17 on Tuesday) and Team USA (40-10 on Wednesday). This means Team USA and Venezuela will meet Thursday at 3:30 PM (East Coast Time) to decide which of those two teams will advance.

USA participation in this event was not originally planned and player selection was heavily influenced by athlete availability and willingness to pay their way. Accordingly, Team USA is missing several key players and the roster is a mixture of veterans and young newcomers who have not played much together. Venezuela, however, is a brand new Handball nation and their side is very inexperienced with little, if any, international experience. The outcomes of the matches against Cuba might indicate a slight edge to Venezuela since they kept their score more respectable.

A short note on the Pan American Handball Championships and the Pan American Games. These are two separate events with separate qualification events.

Pan American Handball Championships
– Frequency: Played every 2 years in June timeframe
– Qualification: Previous top 6 finishers, top 2 from Div 1- Played in previous Nov/Dec
– Top 3 (or more) qualify for the next World Championships
– Greenland can participate

Pan American Games
– Frequency: Played every 4 years in summer/fall preceding Olympics (2007,2011, etc)
– Qualification: Separate North, Central and South American qualification
– Winner qualifies for the Olympics
– Greenland cannot participate

USATH (26 Oct 10): Women's Select Team Roster for Pan Am Championships Qualifier: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2010/10/26/women-s-select-team-roster-for-pan-am-championships-qualifier/39218?ngb_id=42
Women's Select Team in Havana: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2010/11/01/women-s-select-team-in-havana/39314?ngb_id=42

A much abbreviated Div 1 Junior Men’s Championships is currently underway in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. Canada and Venezuela are the only participants as Guatemala and the Dominican Republic had to bow out to due travel/visa problems at the las minute. Both Canada and Venezuela will now advance to the Elite Junior Men’s Finals next year where they will join Argentina, Brazil, Greenland, Uruguay, Chile and Mexico. According to our friends at the Mexico Handball Forum the Pan American Finals will also be in Venezuela in April, 2011. The top 3 teams from that championship, along with Argentina will qualify for the Junior World Championship in Argentina in August, 2011.

The Canadians and Venezuelans played a match Tuesday with the Venezuelans winning 25:19 (17:09 at halftime). Top scorers for Venezuela were Ivan Perez (9) and Drubil Silva (6). For Canada Guillaume Gaudet (8) and Cristian Toth (3). Venezuela and Canada will play another match today.

Mexico Handball Forum: http://handball.mforos.com/1179288/9962631-ven-y-can-ascienden-en-juniors-masculino/

Guadeloupe and Martinique are 'departements' and 'regions' of France located at a considerable distance from Paris and from the 'mainland' handball activities there. They are located a few hundred miles southeast of Puerto Rico and about the same distance north of the coast of Venezuela. The nearest 'major' island is Barbados. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://geology.com/world/caribbean-map.gif&imgrefurl=http://geology.com/world/caribbean-satellite-image.shtml&usg=__ebnAC82ZsGxDuq4aX2WdaMi135w=&h=637&w=900&sz=84&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=hJ-o2Pb11coOeM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=153&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmap%2Bcaribbean%2Bislands%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4ADFA_enUS384US384%26biw%3D1519%26bih%3D637%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=617&vpy=206&dur=231&hovh=189&hovw=267&tx=158&ty=97&ei=zE91TPiECYf4swO11-WgDQ&oei=zE91TPiECYf4swO11-WgDQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0 There are regular handball activities on these islands http://www.guadeloupe-handball.com/ and they have produced world names such as Didier Dinart (G) and Joel Abati (M). But that does not change the fact that they are not easily integrated with handball in the rest of France. This has been a source of concern to the French Federation of Handball for many years.

Accordingly it does not now come as a surprise, when it is being reported that the PanAmerican Federation (PATHF) has accepted a request from the FFH to allow Guadeloupe and Martinique to participate in official PATHF competitions as 'guests' and on an informal basis. This seems like a positive move, and it should 'add some spice' to Caribbean and Central American tournaments as well as to PATHF events. The region has many smaller IHF members, such as Barbados and Trinidad, who are struggling to make progress, and Venezuela is an 'up and coming' power in the area. And new impulses are always helpful. So an exchange involving these French islands would seem to be potentially beneficial in many respects.

Of course, PATHF has to ensure that the participation of Guadeloupe and Martinique does not 'mess up' official PATHF event in some way. If they were to play in the second level PATHF events, one would have to make sure that their involvement would not 'crowd out' other participants. There tend to be limits to how many teams an organizer is capable of receiving. Also, as they could not, due to their status as French regions, qualify for any PATHF Championships or IHF events, one would have to make sure to have a tournament format that does not cause them to interfere with the fairness of the process for the eligible teams to try to move up to the Championship level etc. But with some precautions and restrictions, this can always be arranged.

If you want to learn more about Guadeloupe and Martinique (for instance that Guadeloupe was a Swedish possession for a short while a few centuries ago), here are some links to useful sites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadeloupe http://www.antilles-info-tourisme.com/guadeloupe/p2-in-gb.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinique http://www.martinique.org/

A couple of weeks ago, apropos the final results of the Central/Caribbean Games in Mayaguez, I mentioned a 'rumor' that Cuba (who had failed to participate in that event) would seek the privilege of participating in the 'final chance' competition for the one remaining slot in each of the men's and women's events in the PanAmerican Games next year. It did turn out that Cuba indeed made such a request, but it has now been confirmed that the Executive Committe of the PanAmerican Federation turned it down.

As I noted, this was of course the only reasonable outcome; anything else would have been a shameful manipulation and a great unfairness to the other teams who are eligible to participate in the 'final chance' event. These teams have expended money and efforts to participate in regional events in order to have this final chance, and it would have been highly improper to see another team 'entering through the back door', without having made the effort to go through the same qualifying process as the others.

There are some suggestions that the Cubans tried to use the argument that they had not been able to obtain U.S. visas to participate in the Central/Caribbean Games. It seems that one needs to be careful with such assertions, as such claims can easily be investigated. Instead one could imagine several other reasons for the Cuban absence in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, but I will not enter into such speculation here. The main thing is that the PATHF took the right decision, and they should be congratulated.

So what now remains is to see which teams will qualify directly from the USA-Canada matches (both men and women) for the PanAmerican Games in Guadalajara October 2011, and which teams will have to participate in the 'final chance' events. joining the men from Uruguay, Puerto Rico and Guatemala, and the women from Chile, Costa Rica and El Salvador, respectively, And then will come the important decision about which countries will gain the advantage of hosting these events. This will be determined following the USA-Canada matches in late December or early January.

Editor's Note: Christer may have chosen not to speculate, but it should be noted that any Cuban who steps on American soil is granted residency in the U.S. with no questions asked. Even without the political dimension of defection this is a very tempting economic opportunity. Also, while Puerto Rico has it's own national teams and other aspects of an independent nation, it is still part of the United States.

Following the South American Games last March, the Central American and Caribbean Games have now been completed as far as handball is concerned. This means that, on both the men’s and the women’s side, most of the 8 participants in the handball tournaments in the PanAmerican Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October 2011 are now known. And in Guadalajara it will be determined who will be the direct qualifiers from our continent for the Olympic Games in 2012.

The fields in the PanAmerican Games are as follows so far:
[u]MEN[/u]: Mexico (host), Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. One further team will be the winner Canada-USA, and the final slot will go to the winner of a ‘final chance’ tournament between those next in line: Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and the loser Canada-USA. See also our ‘2012 page’ for the men: https://teamhandballnews.com/page35.html

[u]WOMEN[/u]: Mexico (host), Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Also here the winner Canada-USA, plus the winner of the ‘final chance’ event: Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador and the loser Canada-USA. See our ‘2012 page’ for the women: https://teamhandballnews.com/page36.html

[u]Commentary[/u]: I have earlier commented on the women’s competition in the Central/Caribbean Games. The men’s side had a bit more drama, as it was clear that one quite strong team would fail to qualify directly for Guadalajara and instead would have to try the route via the ‘2nd chance’ tournament. And this tough situation is now what awaits Puerto Rico, which is surely disappointing for the ‘islanders’. They had prepared meticulously but it was not enough. Venezuela turned out to be too strong. What doomed Puerto Rico was the one-goal loss against Mexico in the group play. This led to a semifinal against the favorites from the Dominican Republic and another loss after a valiant battle.

By contrast, Venezuela got to play Mexico in the semifinal, and they surprisingly pulled it off, by a rather good margin 29-23. This is really quite remarkable for a country where handball in a serious way did not start until five years ago. The government has provided very generous support for the rapid build-up and preparations, but it was still not quite expected that Venezuela would do this well. There is now jubilation in the sports community, and as seen from the linked news report, http://www.solodeportes.com.ve/2010/07/28898/balonmano-clasifica-a-la-final-y-a-los-panamericanos-2011/ the credit is now given to President Chavez personally! Let us hope that Chavez did not get too distraught by the clear loss (28-40) in the today’s final against the Dominican Republic.

An awkward rumor has arisen in the aftermath of this week’s competition. As I noted a few days ago, it is remarkable that Cuba is not participating. But now it is being suggested that somehow pressure will come to let Cuba in ‘through the back door’ to the PanAmerican Games, by allowing them to participate in one or both of the ‘final chance’ events mentioned above. The notion is that one or the other of the clearly weaker Central American teams who have just qualified for the ‘final chance’ would voluntarily withdraw and leave a place vacant.

This would clearly be unconscionable, considering what it would do to teams that have properly and fairly participated in the prescribed qualification process. It involves not just a chance to play in Guadalajara but also the final opportunity to have a shot at qualifying for the Olympics for teams such as Chile’s women, Uruguay’s men, and Canada and the U.S. Personally I can only assume that the whole rumor is based on someone’s wishful thinking or on somebody else’s worst fears of foul play. Surely the PATHF/IHF and the ODEPA/IOC would not tolerate such shenanigans in any case! So one must hope that PATHF would want to make a statement and confirm the rules, in order to dismiss these rumors.

Eric Gull is widely known, not just in PanAmerica but in most other continents. At age 37, he has played handball for 32 years, and he has been playing abroad for about 13 years now. He has been very ‘mobile’ as his affiliations cover almost a full dozen clubs in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. He has won numerous league championships, scoring titles, and above all the Champions League. (For a list of all Eric's clubs, see this http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Gull )

Eric played for all the top Spanish clubs including Barcelona and most recently Ciudad Real. And of course he has participated in no less than six World Championships for his dear Argentina. I caught up with Eric after his return home to Argentina, where he will resume playing for the club where it all started, Quilmes.
[i]
CA: Eric, how come that you got started with handball rather than with one of the more traditional sports in Argentina?[/i]

EG: My father (ed.: who came over from Switzerland) played handball and so did my brother. I did try swimming, field hockey, tennis and volleyball, but in the end I decided to focus on our beloved handball.

[i]CA: What do you think are the main reasons for having had such a successful career?[/i]

EG: It has been a great advantage to be left-handed, in combination with my height (204 cm). But I have also had the luck of playing for great coaches, from my first one, Cacho Rothmund, through Enrique Menendez, Olle Olsson, Vladimir Maximov, Juan Carlos Pastor and Talant Dushebaev, just to mention a few.

[i]CA: Your first step towards becoming a professional player was a period in Brazil, but after that you have adapted to living in playing in a variety of very different places such as Russia, Sweden Tunisia, Qatar and of course Spain. How have you managed to adapt so well in so many different environments?[/i]

EG: I felt at home in all these places, and I believe I am basically a positive, happy person who is able to communicate and to establish new friendships everywhere.

[i]CA: Which locations or affiliations did you enjoy the most?[/i]

EG: I would probably mention Valladolid and Barcelona, simply because that’s where I had my biggest successes purely from a handball standpoint. But more generally I would not really want to mention one place ahead of the others; I enjoyed all of them.

[i]CA: You already participated in six World Championships; but what are your thoughts now about Sweden 2011? After all, this is one of the more ‘exotic’ countries you have lived in…[/i]

EG: Well, I hope I will be selected, because it would surely be something special to participate in one more Championship precisely in Sweden. Of course, Argentina’s preliminary group will be played in Goteborg, but it will give me an extra incentive to help the team qualify for the main round, as this might mean that I would get to play in Lund.

[i]CA: But how do you look at Argentina’s chances realistically?[/i]

EG: Of course, the dream would be to repeat the fantastic performance from the World Championship in Portugal 2003, when we defeated Croatia and tied Russia. But it will be tough to advance to the main round. Poland and Sweden are of course among the top teams, and we must focus on doing well against Korea and Slovakia.

[i]CA: Which teams do you see as the favorites this time?[/i]

EG: I would say France, Croatia, Spain, and then Sweden playing at home.

[i]CA: Beyond the World Championships, how do you view your continued career; how many years do you think you have left?[/i]

EG: I am back in Quilmes now partly to have a less demanding schedule so that I can build myself up in an optimal way for the World Championship. A near-term goal is then to play in the PanAmerican Games in Guadalajara in October 2011 and help Argentina qualify for the 2012 Olympics. So I can see myself as playing in Europe again in 2011. But at least we have decided that, in any case, our children will go to school here in Argentina.
[i]
CA: Your comment about the PanAmerican Games reminds me about the traditional Argentina-Brazil rivalry. We recently had the World Cup in football, although Argentina and Brazil did not get to play each other. But the rivalry is really a major one also in handball, is it not?[/i]

EG: It certainly is. There is the same passion when we meet in handball. I have many friends on the Brazilian team, but when our countries play each other, then there is no limit to our readiness to battle.

[i]CA: When your days as a player are over, do you see yourself continuing with handball in some other role, as a manager, coach, or even as a referee?[/i]

EG: As I see it right now, I am now anticipating such a new role; I would probably be more inclined to have a situation where I can finally spend the weekends with my family.

[i]CA: Finally, Erik, if you were asked to give some advice to a young talented Argentine handball player, what would you say?[/i]

EG: I would tell him or her to be humble but also to have the ‘hunger’ to be the very best; it is necessary to pursue your dreams with absolute determination, but you cannot ignore your studies as you must have something to fall back on if it turns out to be impossible to become a professional handball player.

With that we thank one of our continent’s foremost handball profiles and wish him good luck, first in Sweden in January and then in all his future endeavors on and off the court!

I commented earlier that the women's competition had been rather clear-cut, with the three strong teams advancing to the PanAmerican Games and the next ones in the ranking getting a chance in the upcoming 're-qualifying' event. On the men's side I noted that it promised to be a little bit more exciting, as there would be three teams vying to be among the two joining hosts Mexico in Guadalajara in October 2011. It could have been tougher, also on the women's side, but most definitely on the men's side, if Cuba had not decided to refrain from trying to qualify. Their men's team showed enough strength in the recent PanAmerican Championship that a top position this week would have been a certainty.

As it now is, after two days of group play, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela have already joined Mexico in the semifinals and in the hunt for a direct ticket to Guadalajara. At this point it would seem premature to speculate about which team among the three will have to be content with a chance in the 're-qualifying' instead. The opponents that these teams have had are too weak to serve as measuring rods. But among the three weaker ones, Guatemala may seem to be in the best position to beat out El Salvador and Nicaragua in the chase for the second 're-qualifying' slot. The deciding matches will be played on Friday.

The outcome of the handball competition in these Games which currently take place in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, are certainly of importance to the entire handball continent. This is one of the three basic qualifying events for the PanAmerican Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October 2011; and the PanAmerican Games, apart from obviously being important in their own right, also serve as the qualifying event in handball for the 2012 Olympics.

With the Panamerican Games being held in the Central/Caribbean region as now is the case in 2011, the eight slots for the handball event (in the same way for both men and women) are filled as follows: South America: 3, Central/Caribbean: 2 plus the host Mexico, and then USA/Canada: 1. The eighth and final slot is then filled through a special tournament with the next one team from the South (=Chile), the next two from the Central/Caribbean and the loser USA/Canada.

The women’s competition in Mayaguez is finished as far as the slots for Guadalajara are concerned. The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico will play in the final today, while Mexico will play Costa Rica for the bronze. However, as noted above, Mexico is already qualified as a host, so regardless of the result, Costa Rica can do no better than grabbing one of places in the tournament determining the eighth slot in Guadalajara. The other such chance goes to El Salvador who placed fifth. The only empty-handed team is Guatemala in the last place.

Prior to the semifinals, all the six teams played in a round-robin format, but it was already from the first day clear that there were ‘3+3’ teams in the competition. The finalists plus Mexico were several classes above the other three teams. The average result when one of the top three met one of the bottom three was a resounding 41-16…. The three top teams were more evenly matched, although with the sense that Puerto Rico and Mexico would have to be content with a fight for silver and bronze.

It also seems clear that [i]Chile and the loser USA/Canada should have little to fear from Costa Rica and El Salvador in the upcoming fight for the eighth PanAmerican slot[/i]. Chile and USA/Canada have typically been more at the level of the top three Central/Caribbean teams. And to sum it up then, apart from this eight team, the other women’s teams qualified for Guadalajara are [b]Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico[/b], and the [u]winner USA/Canada[/u].

Comments on the men’s event, which starts later today, will be provided in a few days time. Here a battle between three teams (Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela) for two slots (again together with Mexico) can be expected.

The Women's World Junior Championship in Korea is about to move on from the prelimary groups the 'main round' and the placement matches. The field is this time expanded from 20 to 24 teams, and PanAmerica has four representatives, in order of seeding: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Greenland. Generally speaking, these teams have done about as well as one could expect from them. They placed 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th respectively, in their groups of six teams.

Greenland had a tough group, so their results are not surprising; they will now play for 21-24th place and face the Democratic Republic of Congo next. Mexico won against Hongkong in their group, which in itself may not be remarkable; however, it was still a cause for celebration, as it was Mexico's first win ever in a World Championship of any category. They now go on to play Thailand in their first game in the fight for 17th-20th place.

Argentina might be disappointed that they were not able to duplicate their feat from 2008, when they advanced to the main round and finished 12th. They were in a strong grooup and had narrow losses against both Korea and Croatia, but they now have to play for the 13th-16th places. Brazil has a 9th place to defend from 2008, and this is perhaps the best they can hope for this time again. They surprised in the early going, by getting ties against both Hungary and Spain, the two teams that now join them from their group into the main round. This means that they bring 2 points with them, but they now face three difficult opponents in Russia, Sweden and Montenegro.

It is worth noting that no less than 8 of the 12 teams qualifying for the main round are repeating that achievement from 2008. Argentina being knocked out by the Netherlands and France losing to Serbia are two of the four changes. Another one involves Angola being beaten by Sweden. This means that this time there are only two non-European teams among the top 12. The remaining change from last time is that, in a remarkable way, one Scandinavian top women's nation replaces another. In 2008, Norway failed to qualify while Denmark placed 4th; this time it is Denmark's turn to sit at home watching, while Norway won its preliminary group and looks to have good chances.

We keep our fingers crossed for the Panamerican teams and will report back later about their final rankings!

More video from the recent Men's PATHF Championship has been posted at multiple sites

A couple of videos with the last minutes of the Brazil – Argentina final have been posted on youtube. The Mexico Handball forum has links to the video: http://handball.mforos.com/1179288/9734521-mas-videos-del-panamericano/

This Argentina blog also has a link to video with highlights of Argentina's semifinal vs Cuba: http://7mts.blogspot.com/2010/06/videos-del-pan.html

And if you have the time you can click on this Canadian Federation link for file videos of all five matches Canada played: http://www.handballcanada.ca/accueil-en.html

In the football World Cup it could come to a battle between archrivals Argentina and Brazil only if both of them qualify for the final. But in PanAmerican handball it has become a matter of routine to have a final between these two teams, and for a number of years now a frustrated Argentine team has had to be content with the silver medals. This time it looked as if there would be the same outcome, as Brazil was leading by as many as 7 goals. But Argentina managed to tie the game, 23-23, in the final seconds, and then they went on to win 28-27 in overtime.

Both teams were of course already qualified for the 2011 World Championship by virtue of winning their semifinals. So for the Chilean spectators the main excitement came already early in the day, when the home team took on Cuba for the bronze medals and the last qualifying slot. Cuba has a much longer history of participation in world events in handball, whereas Chile has until now never participated in a men's World Championship. However, this time they took advantage of playing at home by beating the Cubans 34-31. Cuba had a one-goal lead at half-time, but they were not able to maintain that edge. Cuba has an athletic and talented team, but they are still very young and inexperienced; perhaps this made the difference in a pressure situation, where Chile could rely on a handful of players with international club experience.

Uruguay, who had just missed out on getting to the semifinals, at least won the consolation of 5th place by beating Greenland 30-27. Canada took 7th place by beating the Dominican Republic with a good margin, 33-22.

The draw for the groups in the World Championship will take place in Goteborg on July 9, during Partille Cup. The top seeds are France, Croatia, Poland and Iceland, with hosts Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Spain in a second tier.

P.S CHILE WON 34-31 AGAINST CUBA AND ARE QUALIFIED FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, TOGETHER WITH ARGENTINA AND BRAZIL; more later in separate article!

When I already predicted that Argentina-Brazil would be in the final, with Chile and Cuba fighting it out for the third slot in the World Championship, at least I thought that the semifinals would be played to their completion. This did happen in the Brazil-Chile game, where Brazil won easily with 33-21 after a 15-5 half-time lead. The Argentina-Cuba match had a very similar development with Argentina leading comfortably 17-8 in the 29th minute. BUT, that is as far as it went. Police then entered the stadium, stopping the game and ordering an evacuation due to a bomb threat!!! Apparently it turned out to be a 'false alarm', but long before that could be firmly established, an emergency decision had to be taken about what to with the continuation of the game.

With the final and bronze medal game scheduled for today Saturday, without any chance for a postponement, and with no hope of finding another handball court very late in the evening, the federation and the teams, in consultation with the IHF supervisor Manfred Prause, had to come to a decision. And it was a drastic one: the game was declared finished! One can assume that neither one of the two teams had any objection. The expected victory for Argentina already seemed confirmed by the 9-goal lead just before half-time. Not even the most optimistic Cuban could expect that result to be turned around. So it might in fact be an advantage for both teams, ahead of today's important games, to have been able to avoid playing the remaining 31 minutes…. The only inconvenience was really that players and referees had to go out into the street in the Chilean winter, with + 2 C, without being able to get hold of warm-up suits or other clothes.

By the way, the consolation games had already been played earlier in the day without any incident. Uruguay defeated the Dominican Republic with 28-24, and Greenland won the 'North American' match-up against Canada with 38-36 after double overtime. The winners play for 5th place today and the losers for 7th place. Let's hope the event finishes uneventfully both on and off the court!

As expected, Brazil and Argentina have advanced to play for the Gold medal today. Brazil easily defeated Chile 33-21. The Argentina – Cuba match was ended early due to what turned out to be a false bomb threat. Argentina was leading 17-8 when the gym was cleared and apparently it was decided to forgo the remainder of the match. This marks the 5th straight time archrivals Brazil and Argentina have played each other in the finals. Brazil has won the last two meetings including a 27-24 victory in 2008. Host Chile and Cuba will play for 3rd place and the last remaining World Championship spot.

In the consolation bracket semifinals, Uruguay defeated the Dominican Republic 28-24 while Greenland needed two overtimes to outlast Canada 38-36. Down 6 goals at halftime (18-12) Canada rallied to end regulation play tied at 28 all. With these defeats the Dominican Republic and Canada will slip back into Division 1 status. Both sides had qualified for the Men‘s Elite Championships by placing 1st and 2nd at the Division 1 Championships last November. To participate in the 2012 Championship they will need to do the same thing in November 2011.

Official Results: http://www.panamhandball.org/index.php?option=com_joomleague&func=showPlan&mode=1&p=15&Itemid=39
For additional information on the tournament check out the Mexico Handball Forum: http://handball.mforos.com/