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Four men and five women booked their spots to the 2020 Olympics after their performance at the World Singles Qualification Tournament. The event took place in Doha, Qata from March 14th to March 17th 2021. The women were split into four brackets where the winner of each qualified to the Olympics. The first knockout bracket was won by top seed Britt Eerland of the Netherlands who needed all seven sets to defeat Chile’s Paulina Vega and then defeated Spain’s Galia Dvorak 4-0 in the finals. The second bracket was won by Sweden’s Linda Bergstrom whom defeated top seed Margaryta Pesotska of the Ukraine 4-1. Joining her from the third bracket was second seed Polina Mikhailova of Russia as she defeated top seed Suthasini Sawettabut from Thailand 4-2. The final for the fourth bracket went to a seventh set as Monaco’s Xiaoxin Yang won as the top seed over Spain’s Maria Xiao. The losing finalists were then placed into a final bracket to determine the final quota. Xiao booked the first spot to the finals by defeating her compatriot, Dvorak 4-2. She was joined by Sawettabut whom defeated Pesotska 4-1. The fifth and final quota was won by Sawettabut thanks to a 4-1 victory over Xiao. The men were split into three brackets where the winner of each qualified to the Olympics. The winner of the first knockout bracket was won by the Czech Republic’s Lubomir Jancarik whom defeated Ukraine’s Lei Kou in straight sets. Hungary’s Bence Majoros won the second bracket by defeating Romania’s Ovidiu Ionescu 4-3 in the semifinals and Belgium’s Florent Lambiet 4-1 in the finals. The third bracket was won by second seed Yang Wang of Slovakia who won over Greece’s Panagiotis Gionis 4-2. The losing finalists and semi-finalists were all placed into a final bracket to determine the final quota. The final came down to Great Britain’s Liam Pitchford whom needed seven sets to defeat Gionis and Russia’s Kirill Skachkov whom won in straight sets against Lambiet. The final quota was won by Skachkov as he defeated Pitchford 4-1. There are still a couple more opportunities for athletes to qualify in the singles events. Four out of six continental qualifiers remain with the Asian qualifier beginning in Doha tomorrow while all remaining nations can still qualify via the World Rankings. Qualified Nations Men's Singles Czech Republic Hungary Russia Slovakia Women's Singles Monaco Netherlands Russia Sweden Thailand

The final six men’s handball teams have booked their spot to the 2020 Olympics after their performances at the Olympic Qualification Tournaments. Three tournaments were held concurrently where four teams played a round robin. The top two teams from each tournament qualified to the games. The tournaments were held from March 12th to March 14th 2021. The first tournament was hosted by Podgorica, Montenegro who stepped in after Norway withdrew. The 2019 World Championship silver medalist Norway was still able to win the group as they defeated Brazil (32-20), Chile (38-23) and South Korea (44-31). Brazil recovered from their first day loss to post wins over South Korea (30-24) and Chile (26-24), though the team was down 17-11 against the latter after the first half. South Korea finished third as they won 36-35 over Chile on the first day thanks to building a nine-point lead and preventing a feverous comeback by the Chilean team. This will be Norway’s second appearance in the men’s tournament at the Olympics with the first being back in 1972 while for Brazil this will be their sixth tournament where they last competed in Rio as hosts. The second tournament was hosted by Montpellier, France. The first day began with Portugal securing a 34-27 victory over Tunisia while the second match between France and Croatia saw the latter build up a five-point lead early into the second half, but France persevered and came back at the halfway point only to build their own lead to win 30-26. Croatia had another suspenseful match on the second day where they fell behind by six goals to Portugal early in the second half. They spent the rest of the match catching up to win 25-24 thanks to a goal by Luka Cindric with 20 seconds remaining. France won their match 40-29 against Tunisia. The final set of matches saw another close event involving Croatia as they went even with Tunisia for most of the first half. Croatia was able to take control of the match in the second half and put some distance against Tunisia to win 30-27 and finish with two victories. The final match of the group between France and Portugal saw the former jump up to a six-point lead only for Portugal to close the gap down to a 1 goal French lead at the end of the half. The second half was a close affair though Portugal barely took possession of the lead. Going into the final minutes France held a three-goal lead. Portugal however would pull off a miraculous comeback including scoring the game winning goal during the final two seconds to win the match 29-28. This caused a three-way tie with Croatia, France and Portugal finishing with four points. Going by goal differential between the tied teams, France and Portugal qualified to the Olympics, leaving Croatia as the odd team out. This will be France’s eighth Olympics in a row. They also won three medals over the past three games (gold in 2008 and 2012 and silver in 2016). Portugal on the other hand will be making their handball Olympic debut. The third tournament was hosted by Berlin, Germany. The first match of the tournament between Germany and Sweden was intense. In the first half, Germany was never behind, but Sweden always kept it close with the half ending 14-13 German lead. The second half it was Sweden’s turn to never fully relinquish the lead, but never having full control of the match. A goal in the final two seconds by Germany’s Marcel Schiller allowed the match to end with a draw. In the other match Slovenia won over Algeria 36-28. Germany and Sweden showed they were on another level against their competitors on the second day as they defeated Slovenia (36-27) and Algeria (36-25) respectively. The pair would clinch Olympic qualification on the final day with Germany defeating Algeria 34-26 and Sweden winning over Slovenia 32-25. Sweden finished first overall thanks to a better goal differential. Sweden has won four silvers in its Olympic history with the most recent one being in 2012. Germany has also won four medals and is the current defending bronze medalist. This is the final opportunity for nations to qualify in the men’s handball tournament. The final women’s teams are set to be decided at their own Olympic Qualification Tournament to be held next weekend. Qualified Nations Men's Tournament Brazil France Germany Norway Portugal Sweden

Two pairs of world champions were crowned today with the conclusion of the 2021 470 World Championships. Additionally, this event doubled as the European qualifier for the 2020 Olympics. The highest ranked eligible boat in the men’s and women’s event qualified to the games. The 470 World Championships were held in Vilamoura, Portugal from March 5th to March 13th 2021. The men’s 470 began with 2019 world silver medalists Jordi Xammar and Nicolas Rodriguez of Spain taking an early lead. Trouble first appeared during the fifth race where the pair finished 19th, making it the dropped score. However, a 20th place finish on the seventh race held on the third day meant the duo had to take on the 19 points from the previous day. This forced them to drop to fourth at the time and allowed for 2019 world bronze medalists Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom of Sweden and Russians Pavel Sozykin and Denis Gribanov to take a joint lead. Dahlberg and Bergstrom took sole possession of the lead by the end of the fourth day and was able to extend their lead to 11 points going into the medal race. The pair sailed a safe final race to win their first world title with a net score of 52 points. The silver medal was won by Portugal’s Diogo and Pedro Costa (73 points) whom also won the Olympic quota for their nation while the bronze medal was won by Xammar and Rodriguez (78 points). The women’s 470 similarly saw 2019 world bronze medalists Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz of France take a first day lead. A relatively poor third and fourth races allowed Spain’s Silvia Mas and Patricia Cantero, 2018 world silver medalists to take the lead by five points. The Spanish pair remained consistent, but were challenged by Afrodite Zegers and two-time Olympic medalist Lobke Berkhout of the Netherlands. Despite being behind by 21 points after the sixth race, the pair made a comeback over the next five races to cut the lead down to three. The medal race saw Mas and Cantero take the shadow strategy where they remained closely behind Zegers and Berkhout to prevent them from finishing two places ahead. This allowed Mas and Cantero to win the gold medal by a single point (75 points) ahead of Zegers and Berkhout. The bronze medal was won by Italy’s Elena Berta and Bianca Caruso (84 points). The Olympic quota was won by Turkey’s Beste Kaynacki and Okyanus Arikan. This completes the 470 class line-up for the Olympics. All that remains is for all nations to accept their quotas. Should a nation decline a quota, the next eligible nation at the 2019 World Championships will then be offered a spot to compete. Qualified Nations Men's 470 Portugal Women's 470 Turkey