The competition for the Norwegian team started on 9 August against the host, China. They defeated the Chinese 30–26 and then went on to win comfortably against Angola (31–17), Kazakhstan (35–19) and France (34–24). The closest result of the Preliminary Round was the last match, on 17 August, against Romania (24–23). During the warm up of this match Katja Nyberg suffered a knee injury that prevented her from playing the quarter final against Sweden. Norway defeated the Swedish team 31–24, advancing to the semi-finals comfortably.