Saturday sees the start of the men’s handball competition at Paris 2024. With a blockbuster clash on the way tonight, this sets the tone for what should be a very exciting preliminary round. Here’s what to keep an eye on.
Clash of the Titans on day one
We’re being spoiled on the opening day of this men’s competition as we’re served up a repeat of the last European, World and Olympic finals – the modern classic of France vs Denmark.
Most expect this to be the game we see at the end of it all on 11 August and with both teams likely to fly through the rest of group B, we can enjoy this titanic battle without any real thoughts or worries about what it all means.
Race to the top of Group A
The focus on the two big boys in the previous point shows how important placement in the preliminary round is for the teams in the other group.
As Antonio Carlos Ortega admitted in our interview, Japan are not likely to endanger the European quintet, so it’ll be a mighty battle among Spain, Croatia, Germany, Slovenia and Sweden for the top two spots as well as survival. Sweden appear favourites to emerge on top but I’m expecting plenty of nervy contests over the next nine days.
Is this Egypt’s time to shine?
It’s a crying shame that Egypt have not claimed a world-level medal over the last three years.
They gave us one of the all-time great matches in the quarter-final of a home World Championship in 2021, losing to Denmark on penalties, and later that year missed out on bronze in Tokyo, falling 33:31 to Spain.
Key players such as Yahia Omar and Ahmed Hesham have had to fight through serious injury but it looks like the squad is as close to full strength as possible and that makes this team incredibly dangerous.
With classy winger Mohamed Sanad and Champions League winner Ali Zein in their peak years, this may be Egypt’s best chance to finally break through and claim a medal that would do handball the world of good. A good showing in the preliminary round is crucial and every match will be worth watching.
The next breakout star
Tokyo saw a 22-year-old Mathias Gidsel confirm what we had already suspected, that he is world class, claiming the MVP award as Denmark won silver.
Who will be the next young men to rubber-stamp their credentials on the biggest stage?
Dominik Kuzmanovic, Renārs Uščins, Thomas Arnoldsen, Gergő Fazekas and Tobias Grøndahl are all aged 23 or younger and have the opportunity to become household names.