The Czech Republic and the USA are canceling their participation in the Handball World Cup due to a number of corona cases. In return, North Macedonia and Switzerland are moving up. The corona virus also strikes at World Cup newcomer Cape Verde. The Africans are one of three German opponents in the preliminary round.
The Czech Republic will not take part in the Handball World Cup in Egypt.
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Shortly before the start of the World Cup, several handball teams have a Corona alarm – the Czech Republic and the USA have even canceled the title fights in Egypt. Due to numerous positive corona tests in the run-up to the World Cup, both teams decided not to participate.
The Czech national team recently had more than ten positive tests for the Sars-CoV-2 virus. Among others, the two selection coaches and former Bundesliga players Daniel Kubes and Jan Filip were infected. North Macedonia move up and meet the hosts, Chile and Sweden in the group G finals that start on Wednesday.
The US is also out
Late on Tuesday evening, the US team also drew the consequences and decided to waive the World Cup. But now Switzerland is there with world-class director Andy Schmid from Bundesliga club Rhein-Neckar Löwen. The Confederates face Austria, Norway and record world champions France in Group E.
According to media reports, a number of players from the German preliminary round opponent Cape Verde tested positive in the training camp. The island team from Africa, which is participating in a final round for the first time, has seven corona cases.
According to a report in the weekly “Expresso das Ilhas”, the players in the newcomer to the World Cup are currently in isolation. Training in the World Cup preparation camp in Portugal has been suspended for a few days. It was still unclear on Tuesday evening whether the team could fly from Lisbon to Egypt on Wednesday as planned. The first round game of the Africans is on Friday against Hungary, two days later there is a duel with the DHB selection.
DHB players are separate from each other
“It was our fear that the infections would not be immediately detectable after the first meeting. That is why we isolated our team before we met for the preparatory course,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer on Tuesday after the German team landed in Cairo on the negative news 24 hours before the World Cup opening game between hosts Egypt and Chile.
US hope remained unfulfilled
The US handball players had hoped until the end to be able to send an emergency team to Egypt. “I think there were ten players and seven from the staff team who were infected. We are now looking to see if there are ways to send eleven players and then hope that we will get negative tests afterwards,” said selection coach Robert Hedin on Tuesday in an interview via Skype to the pay TV broadcaster Sky. Hedin had previously been quoted by the newspaper “Aftenposten” as saying: “We will send twelve players to Egypt on Wednesday, but we have no defense.” This plan could not be implemented.
The US selection had been preparing for the World Cup since January 4th in Denmark. “We tested ourselves all the time and last had a quick test on Monday. It was negative, but when we went to the portal for previous tests, 18 out of the group were positive,” said Hedin. “We believe that one of those who came from the US brought the infection with them. But we don’t know.”
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