German record international Grit Jurack will have the fate of the 24 participants of the Women’s Handball World Championship 2017 in her hands on Tuesday (27 June). The former World Championship bronze medallist and three times Champions League winner will draw the lots for the preliminary round of the event, which will be staged in six German cities from 1 to 17 December, in Hamburg, the hosting city of the final weekend. The setting is the 23rd floor of the Emporio Tower, the start of the draw event is at 2 PM local times.
After Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay completed the field of participants as Pan American representatives on Sunday night, the International Handball Federation IHF have announced the six pots (performance rows) for the draw event on Monday. Host Germany is seeded in pot 2 – and therefore cannot face Romania, Serbia or Olympic champions Russia in their preliminary round group in Leipzig, as they belong to the same performance row.
Pot 1 contains of defending World and EURO champions Norway (top seeded for the preliminary round in Bietigheim-Bissingen), the World and EURO runners-up Netherlands (German opponent in Leipzig), EURO bronze medallists France (top seeded for the preliminary round in Trier) and EURO fourth ranked side Denmark (top seeded for the preliminary round in Oldenburg).
Eighth-finals, quarter-finals and Presidents‘ Cup will be staged in Leipzig and Magdeburg, later-on, the Barclaycard-Arena in Hamburg will host the semi-finals (15 December) as well as the bronze medal match and the final on 17 December.
The draw will be hosted by German TV moderator Anett Sattler. IHF President Dr. Hassan Moustafa and Andreas Michelmann, President of the German Handball Federation, will be part of the draw event. The IHF will provide a livestream of the event on their channels.
Those are the pots (IHF performance rows) for the draw event:
Pot 1: Norway, Netherlands, France, Denmark
Pot 2: Romania, Germany, Russian Federation, Sweden
Pot 3: Serbia, Czech Republic, Spain, Brazil
Pot 4: Hungary, Montenegro, Slovenia, Republic of Korea
Pot 5: Angola, Japan, Argentina, China PR
Pot 6: Paraguay, Tunisia, Cameroon, Poland
