Women's Handball

Handball is an Olympic sport where Britain has absolutely no pedigree. That said, it is a dynamic and exciting sport to watch (on television) and so we have decided that we would like to see some during our Beijing trip as one of Olympic Experience ticket selections.

Form

The British Women's Handball team was not one of the sixteen teams that qualified for last year's European Championship. The British Handball Association (BHA) has invited talented athletes to try the game in the hope that some can be fast-tracked to international quality. The target is London 2012, but the BHA will be looking for games against Olympic sides as part of the development process.

Qualification

The Olympic tournament is a twelve team tournament which will consist of

• China - Host Nation
• Norway - Winner of European Championship, (Sweden, 7 – 17 December 2006)
• Winner of Pan-American Games (Brazil, 14-29 July 2007)
• Winner of World Championship (France, 2 - 16 December 2007)
• Winner of Asian Olympic Qualifying Event
• Winner of African Olympic Qualifying Event
• Two from Olympic Qualifying Tournament 1 (2nd in World Champs, 7th in World Champs, Russia as 2nd in Euro Champs, and a Pan American team)
• Two from Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2 (3rd in World Champs, 6th in World Champs, and teams from Africa and Top continent at the World Championships)
• Two from Olympic Qualifying Tournament 3 (4th in World Champs, 5th in World Champs, and teams from Asia and Oceania (if ranked 8th-12th at the Worlds) or 2nd continent at the World Championships)

The Olympic Qualifying Tournaments will be held from 28 to 30 March 2008. If Russia finishes in the top seven at the World Championship, all lower ranked teams will move one place up giving the 8th-place team from the World Championships the chance to participate in the qualifying tournament.

What to watch

We will be trying to see some of the preliminary games in the handball competition during the first week of Beijing 2008.