The 2020 IHF Women's Olympic Qualification Tournaments were held from 19 to 21 March 2021, in Spain, Hungary and Montenegro. Four teams took part in each tournament, with the two best-ranked teams qualifying for Tokyo 2020.
On 13 March 2020, the IHF postponed the tournaments due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. Previously, the tournaments were scheduled to take place from 20 to 22 March 2020. The tournaments were rescheduled for 19 to 21 March 2021.
Format
There were three Olympic Qualification Tournaments. Only twelve teams that have not yet qualified through the five events mentioned above could play in the tournament:
*The top six teams from the 2019 World Championship that did not already qualify through their continental championships are eligible to participate in the tournament.
*The best ranked teams of each continent in the 2019 World Championship represent the continent in order to determine the continental ranking. The first ranked continent received two more places for the tournament. The second, third and fourth ranked continent received one place each. The last place belongs to a team from Oceania, if one was ranked between 8th–12th at the World Championship. If no team from Oceania met this condition, the second ranked continent receives an extra place instead. The teams that already earned their places through their World Championship ranking will not be considered for receiving places through the continental criterion.
*The twelve teams were allocated in three pools of four teams according to the table below. The top two teams from each pool qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...
.
On 10 January 2020, North Korea withdrew and was replaced by Kazakhstan.
On 3 February 2020, China and Hong Kong withdrew and were replaced by Thailand. In October 2020, China requested to be reinstated because the tournaments were moved and the IHF granted that request. On 1 March 2021, China withdrew from the tournament due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Because of that, Kazakhstan was moved to Tournament 2 and no other Asian team was available (Hong Kong declined a participation and Thailand did not respond prior to the deadline), meaning that Tournament 3 will be played with three teams. Senegal withdrew on 9 March 2021 and was not replaced by another African team.
Referees
The referees were announced on 25 February 2021.
Tournament 1
Standings
''All times are local (UTC+1
UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in:
*Central European Time
*West Africa Time
*Western European Summer Time
** B ...
).''
Matches
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Tournament 2
Standings
''All times are local (UTC+1
UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in:
*Central European Time
*West Africa Time
*Western European Summer Time
** B ...
).''
Matches
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Tournament 3
Standings
''All times are local (UTC+1
UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in:
*Central European Time
*West Africa Time
*Western European Summer Time
** B ...
).''
Matches
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See also
* 2020 IHF Men's Olympic Qualification Tournaments
References
External links
IHF website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handball at the 2020 Summer Olympics - Women's qualification tournaments
Women's qualification tournaments
Handball Women tournaments
Olympics tournaments
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 2020 Summer Olympics
March 2021 sports events in Europe
IHF
IHF
IHF
2021 in women's handball