The Aquila Atlantis Hotel in Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete was the setting earlier today for the draws of both the 2022 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships and 2022 IHF Men’s and Women’s Youth (U18) Beach Handball World Championships.

The draw saw special guests Eleftherios Avgenakis, Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports and MP for Heraklion, alongside Giampiero Masi, Chairman of the IHF Beach Handball Working Group, Hellenic Handball Federation President Konstantinos Gkantis, Local Organising Committee President Konstantinos Violitzis, “Heraklion 2022” Event Manager Panagiotis Traikoglou and Michael Batiste, assistant coach for the NBA basketball side Washington Wizards and former basketball legend in attendance.

Both championships feature 32 teams in each – 16 in the men’s competition and 16 in the women’s competition. The 16 teams are split into four groups of four teams each with the top three in each group qualifying through to two main round groups of six teams each. The top four in each main round group then progress through to the quarter-finals, followed by semi-finals and then medal matches.

As host nation, Greece had the right to choose which group for all four championships they could be in, with no geographical preferences or restrictions in place for any of the draw.

The draws were made as follows:

2022 IHF Men’s Youth (U18) Beach Handball World Championship

Group A: Sweden, Islamic Republic of Iran, Qatar, United States of America
Group B: Brazil, Croatia, Togo, France
Group C: Spain, Greece, Jordan, Czech Republic
Group D: Ukraine, Argentina, Germany, Uruguay

2022 IHF Women’s Youth (U18) Beach Handball World Championship

Group A: Hungary, Thailand, Poland, Uruguay
Group B: Spain, India, Brazil, Ukraine
Group C: Argentina, Germany, France, Romania
Group D: Netherlands, Greece, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico

2022 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship

Group A: Argentina, Greece, United States of America, Puerto Rico
Group B: Croatia, Spain, Uruguay, Ecuador
Group C: Denmark, Norway, Islamic Republic of Iran, Egypt
Group D: Brazil, Portugal, Qatar, New Zealand

2022 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship

Group A: Greece, Portugal, Mexico, Thailand
Group B: Denmark, Spain, Vietnam, United States of America
Group C: Argentina, Netherlands, Uruguay, Australia
Group D: Germany, Norway, Brazil, Hungary