After defeating Qatar 2-1 (28:18, 12:20, SO (8:2) in their opening game of the 2024 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship in Pingtan, China, IHF.info spoke to the USA’s Ebiye Jeremy, who scored eight points in the game and made some important saves in the shoot-out.

IHF.info: How are you feeling after your opening day victory against the Asian champions, Qatar?

Ebiye Jeremy: I’m feeling ecstatic. Qatar was a team that gave us a run for our money the first time we played them – they won 2-0 (28:20) (26:17) at Budapest/Hungary 2016 – so it’s just testament to the amount of work that we've put in over eight years, testament to the amount of work I put in over eight years.

IHF.info: Tell us about the defensive display, especially in the shoot-out…

Ebiye Jeremy: I have put a lot of work into being a shoot-out defender over the past two years and for that work to pay dividends with three straight shoot-out stops. I'm proud of myself, first and foremost, and honestly, I'm proud of the guys that came out with an offence which put up 28 points against a team that is historically known for their defence and known for their goalkeeping.

It’s all just testament to the amount of preparation that we put in. I'm proud of my guys and then I'm proud of myself in making three stops in a shoot-out.

IHF.info: How important is this win? You have won before in the preliminary group of an IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship, but this feels different…

Ebiye Jeremy: Yeah, I think just the energy from the group of guys. We have two rookies. But most of these guys have been in a world tournament, even in multiple world tournaments.

We've been there, we've done that. Our mentality is ‘prepare the best you can, go out and give your best’. All I ask from these guys is that we have one game today and to just give 30 minutes. Then we can relax – the sand will crumble as it may.

IHF.info: There was an impressive performance also from Luke Nguyen today in goal too. Tell us about your relationship with him…

Ebiye Jeremy: I mean, that's my ‘Rush Hour’ brother (after the Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker film). 

When I was trying out for USA Team Handball back in 2013, he was the guy I got in contact with and he's been a buddy of mine ever since.

We motivate each other. We’re in different parts of the United States. I see him work out at 6am so I say (to myself) ‘I've got to work out at 6am’.

That's my brother from another mother – 11 years between indoor national team and beach national team together. He's also my age.

We just try to push each other, try to motivate each other and for me to step in make the first save (in the shoot-out), we had the game plan as far as who was going to cover whom, when coach said ‘he's got the second guy’ I had all the confidence in the world in him, he stepped in made a save, I had a third guy. For the two of us to combine for four saves, it’s testament to the amount of trust we have in each other.

There's no ego on our team. We know that we’ve got to do the best that we can for the matchups that we have and so when it’s his call, I got all my faith in him and I know when it's my matchup he's got faith in me and we're just two guys who believe in each other, love each other and that's what you saw in that shoot-out.

IHF.info: Six years ago, you were in China for the Chinese National Beach Handball Championship and International Grand Prix, where you led an All-star Team of six different nationalities. What is it like to be back in China?

Ebiye Jeremy: It's been a pleasure for me to be back. A lot of the delegates here were at that competition in 2018. It feels like a bit of a homecoming, but every Beach Handball tournament feels like a homecoming, to see other national teams.

It's been such a blessing to be back and six years later, be so warmly received. Everybody still remembered me, the ‘Dream Team’ that won that Chinese Grand Prix in 2018. 

Everybody's super-excited to see me so it's just a pleasure for me to be back and I appreciate being appreciated. I love it.