The Kosovo U19 handball team will face Hungary, Switzerland and Morocco at the World Championship.
The draw for the 11th Youth Handball World Championship was held in Cairo, Egypt, on Friday evening. The World Championship will be held in Cairo from August 6 to 17 this year.
Kosovo U19 was the last in the final pot in the draw. Kosovo secured its ticket to the World Cup through its triumph in the IHF Trophy. First, it won the European phase of the IHF Trophy and then the intercontinental phase. The IHF Trophy aims to develop handball, but also offers a ticket to the global event.
The team that qualifies through the IHF Trophy is considered unlikely to succeed and is therefore last in the final pot.
Hungary was third in the first pot. Switzerland was sixth out of eight representatives in the second pot, the same as Morocco in the third pot. Consequently, Group B, where Kosovo is, is not one of the strongest.
32 representative teams will compete in the Youth World Cup. A total of 17 of them are from Europe.
It is estimated that Kosovo has a chance against Morocco and perhaps even Switzerland to win.
This is the third time that Kosovo’s national handball teams have competed in the World Championship. The U21 handball team first competed in Spain, followed by the U18 handball team in China. The first two qualifiers were also held through the IHF Trophy.
