Nine teams book tickets to Bosnia and Herzegovina

The U21 teams from Slovenia, Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Denmark, Germany, France, Switzerland and Russia made the start to 2013 a perfect one as they prevailed in the Qualification Europe securing themselves a berth at the Men's U21 World Championship in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July this year.

Seven tournaments with four teams each were played in a round-robin format from 4 to 6 January with the first two squads qualifying from Groups 1 and 2 and only the first team qualifying from Groups 3 to 7.

One win and two draws were enough for Slovenia to come out on top of Group 1 ahead of the Netherlands. A 30:21 win against the Netherlands in the first match on Friday (4 January) put the team right on track before a 26-all against Ukraine and a 27-all against Iceland granted them the necessary points for qualification.

The Netherlands recovered well from the setback in their first match and by beating Iceland 37:23 and Ukraine 27:25 they became the second team to qualify from Group 1.

Sweden's campaign in Group 2 was never threatened as they confidently won all their three matches qualifying with the maximum of six points and a goal difference of 'plus 30'.

Hungary secured rank two and also qualified by beating third-ranked Portugal 34:24 and Belgium 29:19.

Denmark, silver medallists at the 2011 U21 World Championship, qualified from Group 3 with five points by beating Serbia 27:19 in the decisive match on Sunday (6 January).

Defending junior world champions, Germany, left Czech Republic, Finland and Austria behind them in Group 4 to qualify for the final tournament with six points.

France, Norway and Montenegro all had four points on their account at the end of the tournament in Group 5. However, due to the best goal difference of the three teams concerned, France could secure rank one for themselves.

There were no doubts and no calculations needed in Groups 6 and 7 as Switzerland and Russia both won all their matches and qualified with the maximum of six points.

A detailed summary of all results can be found here.

Three nations had already qualified: the event’s host Bosnia and Herzegovina, the winners of the 2012 Men’s 20 European Championships, Spain, and runners up, Croatia.

The Men's U21 World Championship in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be played from 14 to 28 July 2013.