1997 World Men's Handball Championship Explained

The 1997 World Men's Handball Championship was the 15th team handball World Championship. It was held in Kumamoto, Japan and was the first World Championship not played in a European country. Russia won the championship.

Qualification

Competition	Dates	Vacancies	Qualified
Host nation		1
	7–21 May 1995	1
	24 July – 4 August 1996	1
	24 May – 2 June 1996	4
	8–13 October 1996	3
	16–29 October 1996	4
European qualification	20 August – 1 December 1996	6
Asian qualification	30 September – 4 December 1996	3
EHF v OCHF Play-off	31 January – 2 February 1997	1

Venues

The organizing committee used four venues to host the 1997 World Men's Handball Championship:^[1]

• Group A: Park Dome Kumamoto
• Group B: Kumamoto City Gym
• Group C: Yamaga City Gym
• Group D: Yatsushiro City Gym

Preliminary round

The top 4 placed teams of each group continues to the knockout stage. The teams are ranked through the following rules.

1. Team with the most points (2 points for each won game, 1 point for each drawn game).
2. If two teams get the same points, the winner in the game between the two teams get ranked first.
3. If the game between the teams ended in a draw, the team with the best goal difference get ranked first.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Final round

Round of 16

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Quarter-finals

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Placement matches

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5th place match

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Semi-finals

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Final

Final standings

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
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External links

• Official report
• WC97 by todor66

Notes and References

1. Web site: Men Handball XV World Championship 1997 Kumamoto (JPN) 17.05-01.06 Champion Russia . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110824145539/http://www.todor66.com/handball/World/Men_1997.html . 24 August 2011 .