KUWAIT: After a 16-year-hiatus, Kuwait’s national handball team will return to the IHF Men’s World Championship which will kick off in Croatia on Tuesday.

The Kuwaiti team booked its ticket to the international tournament, which will be hosted also by Denmark and Norway, after coming fourth in the last Asian Handball Championship in Bahrain. Kuwaiti team’s Algerian coach Said Hadjazi named 18 players for the international competition with the majority those who won bronze in China last year.

The last time Kuwait participated in the prestigious international championship was in 2009 also in Croatia. Kuwait, the Asian champions for four times, qualified for the IHF Men’s World Championship eight times:

Germany (1982), Iceland (1995), Egypt (1999), France (2001), Portugal (2003), Tunisia (2005), Germany (2007) and Croatia (2009).

The 29th IHF Men’s World Championship will kick off on January 14, 2025 in Herning, with the match between Italy and Tunisia, scheduled at 17:30 CET, while France are facing Qatar at 18:00 CET in Porec.

The 32 participating teams are divided into eight groups, with each group comprising of four teams.

Group A: Germany, Czechia, Poland and Switzerland.

Group B: Denmark, Italy, Algeria and Tunisia.

Group C: France, Austria, Qatar and Kuwait.

Group D: Hungary, Netherlands, North Macedonia and Guinea.

Group E: Norway, Portugal, Brazil and United States of America.

Group F: Sweden, Spain, Japan and Chile.

Group G: Slovenia, Iceland, Cuba and Cape Verde.

Group H: Egypt, Croatia, Argentina and Bahrain.

In addition to Kuwait, five more Arab teams will show up in the international competition, namely Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria.

After reaching the quarterfinals in Paris Olympics in 2024, Egypt also dreams of its first medal in the tournament. Egyptian team’s best participations were in Iceland 1995 and Japan 1997 when they came sixth. Tunisia managed to reach the quarterfinals in the IHF Men‘s World Championship which it hosted in 2005. The IHF Men’s Handball World Championship has been organized indoor by the International Handball Federation since 1938.

Throughout their history, the World Championships have been dominated by European teams, with no medals being won by non-European countries until 2015, by Qatar.

In the twenty-eight tournaments held, twelve national teams have won the title. France is the most successful team with six titles, followed by Sweden, Romania and Germany with four titles each.

The current champion, Denmark hold the title three times and the last one in 2023 in Poland and Sweden. Russia was also the world champion three times. Spain also won the title two times. — KUNA