TEHRAN – Iran shared the spoils in a 19-19 draw with Guinea in the opening match of the 23rd IHF Women’s Junior (U20) Handball World Championship on Wednesday.

Iran will play Tunisia in Group B on Thursday.

The 32 teams are divided into eight group of four teams.

The top two sides in each group will qualify for the main round, with pairings of two joining each other in the alphabetical order from the preliminary round groups (i.e., the Group A teams will face the Group B teams, Group C will play Group D, etc). Subsequently, the top two teams in each main round group will progress to the quarter-finals, as the other two sides will play the placement matches.

The Championship take place in three Slovenian cities Celje, Laško and Velenje from June 22 to July 3.