Doha: The four teams that were defeated in the quarter-finals of the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship — Croatia, Germany, Slovenia and Denmark — are now focused on trying to earn a spot in the Olympic qualification tournament.
Each team will want to at least win one of their last two last matches at Qatar 2015. Winning one of two games will be enough to take at least seventh place, which will be the last ticket from the tournament in Doha to Rio 2016.
In all, six teams ranked 2 to 7 at the World Championship in Qatar will qualify for the Olympic Games qualification tournament.
“It was our main goal to get a ticket for the Olympic qualification tournaments. This is our only goal from now on and I hope we can do that. Two matches are still there to be won,” said Croatian right-wing Ivan Cupic, despite being hugely disappointed after their 22-24 loss against Poland.
German left-wing Uwe Gensheimer, whose team lost against Qatar 24-26, shares this opinion. “We will rest and regroup on Thursday because we still have one goal left — to finish inside the top seven and clinch a place for the Olympic qualifying tournament,” he said.
Slovenian playmaker Sebastian Skube wants to win both matches. “We have two more games to play and we will give it our best to take fifth place, which would be a great result for us. Our main target was to finish among the top eight and take an Olympic Qualification berth. If we manage that I think that fifth place is not bad.”
Danish left-wing Casper Mortensen believes that his team is capable of winning every match. “Now we are looking ahead to our next game as we want to win every time we play.”
All the teams can qualify directly for the Rio 2016 by winning their continental championships. The world’s best team from Qatar 2015, European, Pan American and the African champions as well the champions of Asia will join the host nation, Brazil.
The others six teams will be known after the qualification tournament, which will be held from April 8-10 next year.
THE PENINSULA
