Venue(s) 4 (in 4 host cities) | Dates 2–18 December | |
 | ||
Teams 24 (from 5 confederations) | ||
The 2011 World Women's Handball Championship, the 20th event hosted by the International Handball Federation, was held in Brazil from 2 to 18 December 2011.
Contents
- Venues
- Qualification
- Group draw
- Seeding
- Group stage
- Group A
- Group B
- Group C
- Group D
- Knockout stage
- Presidents Cup
- Ranking and awards
- References
The winner qualified for the 2012 Olympic Handball tournament and the 2013 World Championship, while teams finished second to seventh took the Olympic Qualifying tournament spots.
Norway won the title for the second time after defeating France 32–24 in the final, thus became only the second team after Denmark to possess the World Championship, European Championship and Olympic Games title in the same time. France, on the other hand, lost its second consecutive World Championship final after fell short against Russia in 2009. By winning the tournament, Norway qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics as World champions, while Sweden, which finished runner-up behind Norway in the European Championship, moved up to take the vacated European champion spot and also secured its place for the Olympics.
Spain triumphed over Denmark in the bronze final 24–18 and won their first ever World Championship medal, while hosts Brazil knocked out title holders Russia 36–20 in the match for the fifth place to take their best ever result.
Venues
The competition took place in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the third women's World Championship organized outside of Europe, after South Korea in 1990 and China in 2009.
Initially, the matches had to take place in the state of Santa Catarina.
Four cities have been selected to host the matches:
Qualification
Eight European teams qualified for the World Championships through play-offs. The draw was made on 19 December. The first legs were played on 4/5 June with the second legs on 11/12 June.
Group draw
The draw was held on 2 July 2011 at 21:00 local time.
Seeding
The seeding was announced on June 24.
Group stage
A provisional scheduled was released on June 24. Brazil played the opening game on December 2. On July 7 the venues for each preliminary round were announced by the IHF. The detailed match schedule was released on August 31. As all Handball world championships, the tie-breakers in case of point tie betwin two or more teams were: 1.Points in matches between tied teams 2. Goal difference in matches between tied teams 3. Goaldifference in all group matches 4. Most scored goals in all group matches, 5. Draw.
All times are local (UTC−2).
Group A
Venue: Arena Santos, Santos Angola won the tie-break for second place due to a better record in matches between them, Montenegro and Iceland. In those direct encounters all three got 2 points but Angola's +2 goal difference beat Montenegro's +1 and Iceland's –3.
Group B
Venue: Ginásio José Corrêa, Barueri
Group C
Venue: Ginásio do Ibirapuera, São Paulo
Group D
Venue: Ginásio Adib Moyses Dib, São Bernardo do Campo
Knockout stage
President's Cup
Fifth and sixth place finishers from the group compete in the President's Cup to determine the places 17 through 24.
Ranking and awards
No placement matches for places 9 to 16 were played, but as those places might be decisive for qualification to the Olympics, the regulations ranked those teams. The losing teams of the Round of 16 were ranked based on a their group stage record (points, goal-difference, goals scored) against teams placed 1st to 4th (those advancing to the Round of 16).