Qatar's Rafael Capote prepares to shoot against Germany during the 2017 Handball World Championship in this file photo.
Doha: Asian Games defending champions in handball, Qatar have kick -started their preparations for this year’s multi-sport event by announcing a strong 18-member squad yesterday.
The event will be held in Indonesia from August 18 to September 2.
Qatar, which won the Asian Games title four years back by defeating South Korea in the final, will be looking to carry forward the same form which helped them clinch the Asian Handball Championship at the start of this year.
In January, Qatar clinched their Asian Handball title for a third consecutive year when they fought back to overcome rivals Bahrain 33-31 in a keenly-contested final in Suwon, South Korea.
Qatar’s advancement to semi-final stage of the Asian Handball Championship also secured them a berth in next year’s IHF Handball World Cup which will take place in Denmark and Germany.
In Suwon, Qatar were on a high and finished as the only unbeaten team in the tournament, a fact which will help them score some brownie points over their Asian opponents at the Games in Indonesia.
Spanish coach Valero Rivera’s side defeated South Korea 32-21 in a keenly contested semi-final, having earlier outplayed the UAE 34-20, Bahrain 29-21 and Japan 40-23 in the Group stage.
Riveira’s side were unlucky in the at the 2017 IHF Men’s Handball World Championship as they were knocked out in the quarter-finals following a 32-30 loss to Slovenia.
Qatar, which ended as surprise runners-up three years ago in Qatar at the Worlds, looked on track in hunt for their maiden title after they stunned European champions Germany 21-20 in a nail-biting battle in the last-16 stage but failed in the next round.
Rivera, who guided Qatar to the runners-up title at the World Championships in Doha, continues to be in charge of the team and will kick start the training programme from June 2.
The list of players called up for the training are drawn from Al Sadd, Al Arabi, Al Gharafa and Al Rayyan.
Indonesia will host a total of 40 events at this year’s Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang.
The Games - larger than the Olympics both in terms of the number of sports and competitors - will incorporate 40 sports and 462 gold medal events.
The final programme includes all 33 sports that will be staged at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, as well as others that are popular in Asia such as additional martial arts, sepak takraw, kabaddi, jet ski, paragliding and the card game bridge.
In 2014, Indonesia stepped in to host the Games after the original hosts, Vietnam, pulled out to financial reasons.
The only previous time Indonesia hosted the Asian Games was in 1962, when there were fewer than 1,500 athletes and 13 sports, making next year’s edition by far the biggest sports event ever held in the archipelago.
