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Patrick Groetzki at the Olympic qualification tournament in Berlin in mid-March
Photo: Andreas Gora / imago images / Andreas Gora
Start against European champions Spain, then against record world champions France and Norway: The German handball players caught a challenging group A in the draw for the Olympic Games in Tokyo (23 July to 8 August).
The team of national coach Alfred Gíslason will also meet Brazil and Argentina.
The best four teams of the two parallel relays qualify for the quarter-finals.
"You don't have to say much about Norway, France and Spain - we have very established teams as opponents," said Gíslason.
"We take it as it comes and look forward to the task." The German team will start the tournament on July 24th.
"We want to land as far ahead as possible in our group, but the first step is to move into the quarter-finals," said DHB sports director Axel Kromer.
In group B, the current Olympic champions Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Japan, Egypt and Bahrain compete.
The medal games will take place on August 7th.
The games will be played at the Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo.
At the Olympic Games in Rio 2016, Germany won the bronze medal.
For the Tokyo Summer Games, the DHB has given the gold medal as a goal.
The German team had sovereignly made their participation perfectly in the qualifying tournament in Berlin in March.
The world championship in Egypt in January ended the DHB selection in a historically poor twelfth place.
jan / sid
