(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Hamood al Hassani, Oman's beach handball coach, is confident of a good show at the sixth men's and women's Beach Handball World Championships in Recife, Brazil, which will be played from July 22-27.
Oman underwent a long overseas camp in Europe ahead of the worlds and reached Brazil on Monday.
A file photo of an Oman player in action during the fifth Beach Handball World Championships in Musannah, Oman in 2012
Since then, the sultanate side played three friendlies against hosts Brazil and Qatar. Hassani, who is upbeat on the team's preparations, said, ''We have good preparations for the championship. We know that there are top teams, who are more experienced than us. But I have confidence in my boys and we hope to get some good results.''
Oman is clubbed in Group A with defending champion Brazil, Uruguay, Serbia, Australia and Denmark. Incidentally, Denmark coach Gorm Anderson had been Oman coach for three years from 2008-2011.
Group B consists of Argentina, Qatar, Egypt, Russia, Spain and Croatia. Oman takes on Brazil in the opening match of the championship on July 22.
''We arrived nearly ten days ahead of the event in Brazil. It is good to acclimatise and we have had some good training sessions here. The matches against Brazil and Qatar helped us try out different combinations and we hope to do well in the competition,'' said Hassani.
The championship will be organised in three phases. In the preliminary round, the teams are pooled into two groups of six teams each. The top three from each group will play against each other in the main round.
The top four from that phase will then qualify for the knockout stage - semifinals, playoff and final. The women's event also features 12 teams.
Brazil's men and women are the defending champions, winning the titles at the worlds held in Oman in 2012.<
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