QHA President: National Team Aspires to be among Top Ten in IHF Men's World Championship

Doha, January 04 (QNA) - President of the Qatar Handball Association (QHA) Ahmad Mohamed Al Shaabi affirmed that the national team aspires to be among the top ten teams in the 27th IHF Men's World Championship, which will be held in Egypt from January 13 to 31. Al Shaabi said, in a press statement, that the World Championship is the strongest competition and they always prepare for it well, but this time the preparation was not in the required manner. At the local level, he said they were keen to have a strong league with its high-level local and professional elements, which would positively reflect on the team, but this did not happen in the last season due to the conditions that sport has experienced as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic He added that before the past participations in the World Championship, they used to establish external camps and play a sufficient number of friendly matches with strong teams, but they were not able to do so before the next participation due to the circumstances imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic. The national team played limited friendly international matches against Tunisia, Argentina, and finally Spain, he said. In this regard, he pointed out that the impact of the pandemic on the preparations of other teams, especially European teams, is relatively less, as they possess physical strength, they have strong competitive leagues, and all their players are professionals, and the presence of a competition such as the European Champions League raises their level of readiness. He said that they were covering this big difference through camps and preparations, and bringing in prominent professionals in coordination with different teams, but this did not happen in the last season and therefore they have the advantage in the World Championship. He explained that the stability of the technical staff led by Spaniard Valero Rivera is one of the positive factors that may narrow the gap with the strong European teams and the rest of the competing teams in the World Cup because they know the players well, and this a positive aspect, despite the presence of injuries from which very important players suffer such as Hassan Awad and Kamalaldin Mallash who underwent surgery, as well as Frankis Marzo who was injured in his hand, as well as a number of other players. Al Shaabi stressed that being among the top ten teams in the world would be a good achievement for the Qatari team in light of the current circumstances, saying that we are facing great challenges after being runners-up to the World Championship (Qatar 2015), adding that they know that the national team is in a good group that includes Croatia, Japan and Angola. (QNA)