The 2026 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships got underway at Lake Jarun in Zagreb, Croatia on Tuesday (23 June) with 31 of the 32 teams in the competition playing due to the delayed arrival of Benin in the women’s competition.
 
The full day saw a number of dramatic clashes, with defending title-holders Croatia (men) and Germany (women) winning their two games each to confirm their main round spots already.
 
A true highlight of the day came right at the very end when Portugal and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s men’s sides went to a fourth round of shots in their shoot-out, Iran seeing their 19th shot saved as the European side took an incredible 35:34 victory – a world championship record.

Men’s title-holders and hosts Croatia ease through to main round as Iran and Portugal make history

The first day of men’s competition at Lake Jarun saw 16 games played – two of which featured title-holders Croatia, who ensured progression through to the next stage with two, 2-0 wins.

Captain Ivan Juric top-scored on 16 points as Croatia beat Oman 2-0 (15:12, 20:16) in the morning session, with a 2-0 (23:20, 26:18) victory secured in the final game of the opening day under the floodlights against Oceania champions Australia.

The World Games 2025 champions Germany were made to work by Argentina in their opener, the South American’s missing their ninth shot in the shoot-out leaving captain Robin John to shoot home the single point for a 13:12 victory.

The Germany side then beat debutants Italy in their second game, 2-0, with Italy’s Alessandro Benini top-scoring on 14 points – he earlier scored Italy’s first-ever IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship points against Brazil in a 2-0 loss.

“It was a successful day but it was not the matches we wanted to play,” said Germany’s Tobias Zeyen to ihf.info. “The feeling is great, we all love beach handball, we all want to play at the best tournaments and with the best teams in all the world. We have a chance to grab a medal and we are all fighting for it.

“It’s not the same here as when we won The World Games in China last year, we have a little bit more pressure. It’s pretty tough as the teams want to beat us, it’s tough. So far, it’s OK, it’s good, but we want to finish in first place – that’s our dream and we are fighting for it.”

Brazil are IHF Men’s World Championship record title-holders and added a second win later on in the South America derby on court four against Argentina, Nailson Amaral top-scoring on 16 points.

“I’m feeling young, not an old boy,” joked Brazil’s 40-year-old specialist Bruno de Oliveira. “We trained a lot every day and I’m very, very excited to be at this world championship.”

Other highlights of the opening day included debutants France getting two 2-0 wins, against Oman and Australia, Portugal’s Diogo Ferreira scoring 29 points against the USA in a 2-0 win.

The epic shoot-out between Iran and Portugal saw both sides miss their fifth shots in the first round, but it would take another 14 shots before a shot was saved again, Arad Hosseini Gohar seeing his attempt repelled by Tomas Van-Zeller in the Portugal goal, allowing Gabriel Conceicao the chance to sink home a single point for a win.

The results of the first day mean Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Brazil, Germany, France, Denmark, Tunisia and Croatia are all through to the main round with four points from their two games each respectively with one game remaining in the preliminary group stage.

Germany women made to work hard to start 2024 title defence, Cook Islands step up to global stage

Two games, two continents, two shoot-outs, two victories – the opening day was a success for the 2022 and 2024 world champions Germany in group A who are going for an historic triple golden run and if they manage it, will be the first-ever to do so.

Their first victory came thanks to 20 points from Isabel Kattner with Asian champions Vietnam downed 7:4 in the shoot-out in a come-from-behind victory after the Vietnamese side had won the first set via golden goal. Their second shoot-out victory came against the exciting Uruguayans, who fought back to take a second set win, but then missed three of their five shots in the shoot-out to lose 8:4.

“We are feeling lucky to have won both of them, they were challenging because we needed to have some time to ‘find’ into the games, into the tournament. The first day is always a little bit difficult, but having those two wins in the end makes us happy,” said Germany captain Kirsten Sophie Walter to ihf.info.

“The Europeans against the other continents they are playing different beach handball so we need to adapt to their way of play, but we will get used to it over the tournament.”

In an exciting group, Vietnam were also taken to a shoot-out against 2024 bronze medallists Netherlands, with Anna Buter scoring 23 points for the Europeans in a 9:4 shoot-out win. The Dutch, having already defeated Uruguay 2-0 earlier on the day, confirmed their main round place.

In group D, Argentina, who were runners-up to Germany at China 2024 and are current The World Games champions, had a mixed day, beating Philippines 2-0 but losing 9:8 to Denmark in a shoot-out with Maria Krogh Holm top-scoring in the game for the European side, on 24 points. Denmark, like the Philippines, only played one match on the opening day due to Benin’s late arrival, being awarded a forfeited 2-0 win.

Debutants Cook Islands made history as Mariana Ngaputa scored the first-ever senior IHF World Championship points for her nation in any form of the sport in a 2-0 loss to 2016 world champions Spain. The Spanish side secured their main round spot later on with a 2-0 victory over Puerto Rico, joined by host nation Croatia, who also record two 2-0 wins in Group B.

Group C is a little more open after the first day with Brazil the only side safely through to the main round with two wins from two. They started off with an impressive 28 points from Beatriz Correia guiding them to a 2-0 win over 2010 world champions and ended with a 6:4 shoot-out win over 2018 champions Greece.

Greece had earlier beat the USA 2-0 thanks to 14 points from Eleni Kerlidi, with Norway also defeating the North American and the Caribbean champions 2-0 to ensure the Americans ended the day bottom.

For all statistics and much more on the 2026 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships, click HERE. 

2026 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships
 
Day 1 RESULTS
 
PRELIMINARY GROUPS
Men’s Competition
GER v ARG 2-1 (25:16, 16:19, SO 13:12)
BRA v ITA 2-0 (28:16, 21:18)
HUN v TUN 2-0 (25:22, 23:22)
DEN v PUR 2-0 (27:20, 22:12)
CRO v OMA 2-0 (15:12, 20:16)
ESP v IRI 2-0 (25:14, 16:14)
POR v USA 2-0 (29:18, 29:16)
FRA v AUS 2-0 (24:14, 23:19)
HUN v DEN 2-1 (27:26, 24:25, SO 9:6)
TUN v PUR 2-0 (24:16, 18:16)
ITA v GER 0-2 (18:28, 20:22)
BRA v ARG 2-0 (18:14, 28:18)
USA v ESP 0-2 (23:32, 24:27)
FRA v OMA 2-0 (20:18, 23:18)
POR v IRI 2-1 (14:16, 19:14, SO 35:34)
AUS v CRO 0-2 (20:23, 18:26)
 
Women’s Competition
NOR v BRA 0-2 (18:23, 16:27)
GRE v USA 2-0 (13:12, 20:8)
ARG v PHI 2-0 (18:12, 20:10)
DEN v BEN 2-0 (10:0, 10:0)*
CRO v PUR 2-0 17:16, 16:12)
ESP v COK 2-0 (30:7, 20:6)
GER v VIE 2-1 (22:23, 30:18, SO 7:4)
NED v URU 2-0 (20:16, 19:16)
ARG v DEN 1-2 (24:29, 23:21, SO 8:9)
PHI v BEN 2-0 (10:0, 10:0)*
USA v NOR 0-2 (6:24, 12:25)
GRE v BRA 1-2 (20:16, 12:23, SO 4:6)
URU v GER 1-2 (15:18, 17:16, SO 4:8)
NED v VIE 2-1 (22:24, 21:20, SO 9:4)
PUR v ESP 0-2 (10:26, 16:26)
CRO v COK 2-0 (26:10, 24:8)
 
*Due to the delayed arrival of Benin, this game was forfeited with their opponents awarded a 2-0 (10:0, 10:0) victory.