| Tourney Name: | World Women's Handball Championship |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Size: | 280 |
| Country: | Spain |
| Dates: | 1–19 December |
| Num Teams: | 32 |
| Confederations: | 5 |
| Venues: | 4 |
| Cities: | 4 |
| Count: | 4 |
| Goals: | 5873 |
| Top Scorer: | Nathalie Hagman (71 goals) |
| Player: | Kari Brattset Dale |
| Previous: | 2019 World Women's Handball Championship |
| Next: | 2023 World Women's Handball Championship |
The 2021 IHF World Women's Handball Championship, the 25th event by the International Handball Federation, was held in Spain from 1 to 19 December 2021.[1] On 18 October 2018, at a congress in Doha, Qatar, the IHF announced that the World Championship would be expanded from 24 teams to 32 teams from 2021 onwards.[2]
The Netherlands were the defending champions after winning for the first time in 2019. However, they finished third in their main round group and failed to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Norway defeated France to win their fourth title.[3] Denmark captured the bronze medal by winning against Spain.[4]
Spain and Hungary bid for the right to organise the 2021 Women's World Handball Championship. The International Handball Federation decided that the voting process would take place during the 2017 World Men's Handball Championship.
The Spanish bid included the following six host cities and venues:
| Host city | Venue | Capacity | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12,000 | |||
| 5,200 | |||
| 5,000 | |||
| 5,500 | |||
| 5,200 | |||
| 12,500 |
The President of the Royal Spanish Handball Federation confirmed that full support is granted by the Olympic Movement, Spanish government and the handball community. The Spanish government guaranteed the introduction of all necessary measures so that the event could be celebrated in a full security setting, with special attention paid to key infrastructures for the staging of the competitions and to IHF operations, its subsidiaries and delegations from different countries.
The Hungarian bid included the following six host cities and venues:
| Host city | Venue | Capacity | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8,000 | |||
| 5,500 | |||
| 8,000 | |||
| 12,000 | |||
| 6,000 | |||
| 6,000 |
The 2021 Women's World Handball Championship was awarded to Spain by a secret ballot of members of the IHF Council.
The tournament is being played in the following venues: Llíria, Torrevieja, Castelló and Granollers as the final four venue.
| Granollers | Llíria | |
|---|---|---|
| Palau d'Esports de Granollers Capacity: 5,685 | Poliesportiu Pla de L'Arc Capacity: 4,200 | |
| Castelló | Torrevieja | |
| Pabellón Ciutat de Castelló Capacity: 5,263 | Palacio de los Deportes de Torrevieja Capacity: 4,500 | |
| Competition | Dates | Host | Vacancies | Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host nation | 28 January 2017 | 1 | ||
| 2019 World Championship | 30 November – 15 December 2019 | 1 | ||
| 2020 European Championship | 3–20 December 2020 | 4 | ||
| European qualification | 19 March – 21 April 2021 | Various | 10 | |
| 2021 African Championship | 8–18 June 2021 | 4 | ||
| 2021 Nor.Ca. Women's Championship | 22–25 August 2021 | 1 | ||
| 2021 Asian Championship | 15–25 September 2021 | 5 | ||
| 2021 South and Central American Championship | 5–9 October 2021 | 3 | ||
| Oceania | 8 August 2021 | N/A | 0 | None |
| Wild card[5] [6] | 8 August 2021 | 2 | ||
| 23 September 2021 | 1 |
2. Since 2018 countries from Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) are participating in the Asian Championships: if one of them finishes within the top five, it qualifies for the World Championship. Otherwise the place transfers to the wild card spot.
3. Since Oceania did not register a team for the upcoming Asian qualification event, the IHF Council awarded two Wild Cards for the 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship in Spain, namely to the National Federations of Slovakia and Poland.
4. As the 2021 Asian tournament was only played with 11 teams instead of 12, only five teams qualified and a wild card was granted to China.
The draw took place on 12 August 2021 at 22:00 in Castellón, Spain.[12] [13]
The seeding was announced on 8 August 2021.[14] As organizer, Spain had the right to choose their group. The Asian, North and South American teams were not known at the time of the draw.
18 referee pairs were selected on 12 October 2021.[15]
| Referees | ||
|---|---|---|
| Yousef Belkhiri Sid Ali Hamidi | ||
| María Paolantoni Mariana García | ||
| Amar Konjičanin Dino Konjičanin | ||
| Davor Lončar Zoran Lončar | ||
| Karina Christiansen Line Hansen | ||
| Yasmina El-Saied Heidy El-Saied | ||
| Karim Gasmi Raouf Gasmi | ||
| Maike Merz Tanja Kuttler | ||
| Alexei Covalciuc Igor Covalciuc | ||
| Referees | ||
|---|---|---|
| Novica Mitrović Miljan Vešović | ||
| Marta Sá Vânia Sá | ||
| Cristina Năstase Simona Stancu | ||
| Viktoria Alpaidze Tatiana Berezkina | ||
| Marko Sekulić Vladimir Jovandić | ||
| Koo Bo-ok Lee Se-ok | ||
| Javier Álvarez Ion Bustamante | ||
| Samir Krichen Samir Makhlouf | ||
| Kürşad Erdoğan İbrahim Özdeniz | ||
See main article: 2021 World Women's Handball Championship squads.
Each team consists of up to 18 players, of whom 16 may be fielded for each match.
All times are local (UTC+1).[16]
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All points obtained in the preliminary round against teams that advanced as well, were carried over.
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Places 1 to 4 and 25 to 32 were decided by play-off or knock-out. The losers of the quarter finals were ranked 5th to 8th according to the places in the main round, points gained and goal difference. Teams finishing third in the main round were ranked 9th to 12th, teams finishing fourth in the main round were ranked 13th to 16th, teams finishing fifth in the main round were ranked 17th to 20th and teams ranked sixth were ranked 21st to 24th. In case of a tie in points gained, the goal difference of the main round was taken into account, then number of goals scored. If teams were still equal, number of points gained in the preliminary round were considered followed by the goal difference and then number of goals scored in the preliminary round.
| Rank | Team[17] | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | ||
| 5 | ||
| 6 | ||
| 7 | ||
| 8 | Russian Handball Federation | |
| 9 | ||
| 10 | ||
| 11 | ||
| 12 | ||
| 13 | ||
| 14 | ||
| 15 | ||
| 16 | ||
| 17 | ||
| 18 | ||
| 19 | ||
| 20 | ||
| 21 | ||
| 22 | ||
| 23 | ||
| 24 | ||
| 25 | ||
| 26 | ||
| 27 | ||
| 28 | ||
| 29 | ||
| 30 | ||
| 31 | ||
| 32 | [18] |
| Qualified for the 2023 World Women's Handball Championship |
The all-star team and MVP was announced on 19 December 2021.[19]
| Position | Player | |
|---|---|---|
| Kari Brattset Dale | ||
| Goalkeeper | Sandra Toft | |
| Right wing | Carmen Martín | |
| Right back | Nora Mørk | |
| Centre back | Grâce Zaadi Deuna | |
| Left back | Henny Reistad | |
| Left wing | Coralie Lassource | |
| Pivot | Pauletta Foppa |
| Rank | Name | Team | Goals | Shots | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nathalie Hagman | 71 | 91 | 78 | |
| 2 | Alexandrina Cabral | 44 | 81 | 54 | |
| 3 | Irina Alexandrova | 43 | 87 | 49 | |
| Elke Karsten | 73 | 59 | |||
| Patrícia Kovács | 74 | 58 | |||
| Nora Mørk | 62 | 69 | |||
| 7 | Cyrielle Ebanga | 41 | 79 | 52 | |
| Jovanka Radičević | 56 | 73 | |||
| 9 | Bo van Wetering | 40 | 50 | 80 | |
| 10 | Kari Brattset Dale | 38 | 46 | 83 | |
| Albertina Kassoma | 42 | 90 | |||
| Henny Reistad | 60 | 63 |
| Rank | Name | Team | % | Saves | Shots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Althea Reinhardt | 50 | 71 | 141 | |
| 2 | Yara ten Holte | 44 | 24 | 54 | |
| 3 | Sandra Toft | 43 | 80 | 188 | |
| 4 | Kristina Graovac | 40 | 26 | 65 | |
| Tess Wester | 72 | 181 | |||
| 6 | Marta Alberto | 37 | 43 | 115 | |
| 7 | Johanna Bundsen | 36 | 20 | 56 | |
| Mercedes Castellanos | 50 | 137 | |||
| Silvia Navarro | 64 | 179 | |||
| Viktória Oguntoyová | 38 | 107 | |||
| Silje Solberg | 45 | 124 |
| Rank | Name | Team | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrícia Kovács | 46 | |
| 2 | Larissa Nüsser | 45 | |
| Jamina Roberts | |||
| 4 | Nora Mørk | 44 | |
| 5 | Natsuki Aizawa | 42 | |
| Stine Bredal Oftedal | |||
| Lee Mi-gyeong | |||
| 8 | Grâce Zaadi Deuna | 41 | |
| 9 | Itana Grbić | 39 | |
| 10 | Marizza Faría | 36 | |
| Kristina Jørgensen | |||
| Adjani Ngouoko |
| Rank | Name | Team | Total | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Line Haugsted | 19 | 2.1 | |
| 2 | Liliana Venâncio | 15 | 2.1 | |
| 3 | Kelly Dulfer | 12 | 2.0 | |
| 4 | Tamires de Araújo | 10 | 1.4 | |
| 5 | Kari Brattset Dale | 9 | 1.0 | |
| Kristine Breistøl | 1.0 | |||
| 7 | Daniela de Jong | 8 | 1.1 | |
| Albertina Kassoma | 1.1 | |||
| 9 | Karina dos Santos | 7 | 1.0 | |
| Béatrice Edwige | 0.8 | |||
| Irene Espínola Perez | 0.8 | |||
| Marija Petrović | 1.2 | |||
| Danick Snelder | 1.2 | |||
| Yvette Yuoh | 1.0 |