Portugal and Argentina will meet in the first phase of the World Championship in the men’s category. The “group of death” in the women’s comprises Argentina, Italy, Portugal and Germany. The Intercontinental Championship, Challenger’s Championship and U19 competitions have also been decided.
Click HERE if you want to watch the video of the draw.
The World Roller Games have carried out the draw for the rink hockey groups to determine the matches in the first competition phase. The event was held at the Joan Antoni Samaranch Olympic and Sports Museum and the draw was conducted by Marta Carranza, Sports Commissioner for the Barcelona City Council; Daniel Laga, Sports Coordinator for the Barcelona Provincial Council; Santi Siquier, Territorial Representative for the Sports Council of the Catalan Government; Carmelo Paniagua, President of the WRG Organising Committee and Royal Spanish Roller Sports Federation; Ramon Basiana, President of the WRG Executive Committee and Catalan Roller Sports Federation; João Rodrigues, player for the Portuguese national team, and Laura Vicente, goalie for the Spanish national team.
The rink hockey discipline will be divided into three different competitions during the WRG 2019:
World Championship (from 1st to 8th position), Intercontinental Championship (from 9th to 16th position) and Challenger's Championship (from 17th position).
The groups for the Rink Hockey World Championship and other competitions to be held during the World Roller Games are as follows:
World Championship
Men
Group A: Spain, Angola, Italy and France
Group B: Portugal, Chile, Argentina and Colombia
Women
Group A: Spain, France, Chile and Switzerland
Group B: Argentina, Italy, Portugal and Germany
Dates: 7 to 14 July
Venues: Barcelona (Palau Blaugrana) and Vilanova i la Geltrú (CEM Isaac Gálvez)
Intercontinental Championship
Men
Group A: Mozambique, Andorra, England and Egypt
Group B: Switzerland, Germany, Brazil and Australia
Women
Teams: India, Egypt, England, Japan, Colombia, USA and China
Dates: 7 to 13 July
Venues: Sant Cugat del Vallès (ZEM Rambla Celler) and Vilanova i la Geltrú (CEM Isaac Gálvez)
Challenger’s Championship
Men
Group A: Belgium, China Taipei, Uruguay, Austria, Japan and New Zealand
Group B: Holland, India, USA, Mexico, Macao-China and China
Dates: 7 to 13 July
Venue: Terrassa (La Maurina municipal sports centre)
The first championship phase will be staged in a round-robin format. Subsequently, play-off matches will be played between the two lowest ranked teams in the World Championship (fourth in each group) and the two best Intercontinental teams (first two in each group). The winning teams of these clashes will enter the second phase of the World Championship (quarter finals, semi-finals and final) and the losers will head to the Intercontinental. This same play-off format will also be used between the lowest ranked teams in the Intercontinental Championship and the highest ranked in the Challenger’s Championship.
U19 CATEGORY
Alongside the absolute competitions in the senior category, the World Roller Games will also host two of these tournaments in the U19 category with only the participation of men’s teams:
World Championship
Men
Group A: Portugal, Colombia, USA and Italy
Group B: Spain, Chile, Switzerland and Argentina
Dates: 29 June to 5 July
Venue: Vilanova i la Geltrú (CEM Isaac Gálvez)
Intercontinental Championship
Men
Teams: Egypt, England, Mozambique, India, Mexico and Andorra
Dates: 29 June to 5 July
Venue: Vilanova i la Geltrú (CEM Isaac Gálvez)