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The first day of the 2021 Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament saw athletes from East and South Asia book their spot to the games. The Asian qualifiers differ from other continental qualifiers as each of the five regions along with the highest ranked runner-up (in the April 2021 rankings) are given singles quotas. As a reminder, the West Asian qualifier took place last year. The Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament is currently being held in Doha. Qatar from March 18th to March 20th 2021. Due to being the only eligible nation from the region to compete Mongolia was ensured to win a quota in the men’s and women’s singles while India was guaranteed to win a quota in the women’s singles. The only question would be who? The East Asian women’s singles qualifier was won by Mongolia’s Batmonkhiin Bolor-Erdene whom defeated her compatriot Batbayaryn Doljinzuu 4-1. On the men’s side it was Mongolia’s Enkhbatyn Lkhagvasuren who won in straight sets over his compatriot Jargalsaikhan Munkhzorig. In the South Asian women’s singles qualifier India’s Sutirtha Mukherjee won over her compatriot Manika Batra 4-2. Batra however, will still qualify to the Olympics as she will be the highest ranked runner-up. The men’s South Asian qualifier saw three athletes compete in a round-robin tournament. The first match was a see-saw event where India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won the first two sets against his compatriot Sharath Acanta. Acanta would win the next three to take a 3-2 lead, but Gnanasekaran was able to close out the match by winning the next two sets in a 4-3 set thriller. Both Indian players would go on to win straight sets over Pakistan’s Muhammad Rameez. This meant Gnanasekaran won the South Asian men’s quota. Acanta will also qualify due to being the highest ranked runner-up. The Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament continues tomorrow with more matches in the other regions along with the mixed double qualifier. Qualified Nations Men's Singles India India* Mongolia Women's Singles India India* Mongolia * To be confirmed upon publication of April 2021 rankings

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