Four teams make an early start on the road to Denmark

Four nations will begin the race for qualification to the Women’s 19 EHF EURO almost a month earlier than the others.

Romania, Poland, Slovenia and Great Britain will play their qualification tournament from 29-31 March, due to the original playing dates of 17-19 May coinciding with the final high school exams in Poland.

The group will be played in Craiova in Romania and the top two teams will qualify for the finals in Denmark from 1-11 August 2013.

Romania, Poland and Slovenia all participated in the 2011 final tournament in the Netherlands. Romania finished sixth, Poland 13th and Slovenia 15th.

This will be the first participation at this level for Great Britain. Their only other underage participation was the U20 World Championship qualification in 2012.

The schedule is as follows:

29 March
Romania vs Slovenia - 16:00 hrs. local time
Poland vs Great Britain - 18:00

30 March
Great Britain vs Romania - 11:00
Slovenia vs Poland - 13:00

31 March
Romania vs Poland - 11:00
Slovenia vs Great Britain - 13:00

The remaining six groups will all be played on 17-19 May, with two teams qualifying from Groups 1-6 and one team qualifying from Group 7.

Denmark as the organiser and second ranked nation at the 2011 Women's 17 European Championship have already qualified. Russia as the first ranked nation at the 2011 Women's 17 European Championship and Norway as the third ranked nation at the 2011 Women's 17 European Championship have also already qualified.

For more information on all of the qualifiying groups click here.

Visit the official event website from the Danish Handball Federation here.