The first day of the 2018 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship in Kazan, Russia saw all 16 nations play twice throughout the day, with some big clashes and small pieces of history made.

- Spain come back from a nightmare start to defend their title with a win against debutants Greece
- Debutants Paraguay and Greece through, with wins against Australia
- Brazil into main round as the 2016 runners-up grab two wins
- Mexico’s Edna Viridiana Uresti Valencia leads the scoring charts with 33 points

2018 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship
Preliminary Round – Day 1
 For a selection of Day 1 quotes from players and coaches click HERE.

Group A
The first three games all went to shootouts in this group as the title holders Spain got off to a nightmare start against debutants Greece. By the fifth minute of the first set, Spain were down 8:0 and for Daniel Lara’s side Kazan 2018 was already turning into a disaster.

Having lost the first period by 10 points, his Spanish side came back strong in the second set, to take the victory, although a crucial save by Patricia Encinas Guardado six minutes into the period as Greece threatened to equalist at 8:8, eventually sent the game into shots, but it was not a dramatic spectacle as just one goal was scored.

Maria Ascuncion Batista Portero struck the second shot of the shootout after Guardado has prevented Greece from opening the scoring, but there were to be no further goals. Ntafina Dimitri was involved in both ends for Greece, but it was when Magdalini Kepesidou made the decision to throw full-length instead of passing to her attacking player that Greece’s dream of a debut game win died.  

Portero had read the attempt and managed to scramble back to make the save and help Spain start their title defence with a win, which wad followed by a 2:0 victory over Paraguay later to send them through to the main round already.

Greece and Paraguay will join Spain in the main round after they both beat Australia, most notably the Paraguayans, who won on the shootout 8:4 in an extremely tight match, to win their first-ever game at this level and send the Aussies out of contention and into the consolation round.

Results
ESP-GRE 2:1 (10:20) (14:8) [2:0 SO]
AUS-PAR 1:2 (13:12) (10:11) [4:8 SO]
GRE-AUS 2:1 (18:16) (10:12) [6:4 SO]
PAR-ESP 0:2 (15:24) (6:21)

Group B
Poland had the cleanest record in group B today, winning both their games 2:0, against France and in the final game of the opening day of Kazan 2018, against Chinese Taipei, to confirm their place in the main round.

France, in their very first world championship could still qualify for the next phase with a winner-takes-all clash against the Asian side, and they came close to making that next step as they won their first-ever set, against Uruguay, but fell short in the shootout.

While Poland are in the main round now, the remaining three teams all have a chance to make the next stage.

Results
URU-TPE 1:2 (15:17) (20:15) [4:5 SO]
POL-FRA 2:0 (20:10) (18:15)
FRA-URU 1:2 (17:14) (12:13) [6:7 SO]
TPE-POL 0:2 (18:29) (14:17)

Group C
2016 runners-up Brazil, as expected, started their campaign with a perfect double 2:0 record which included a strong performance in front of the home crowd, to beat Russia 2:0 and then a dominant, one-sided victory against the USA.

Like their men’s team, the Russian women turned around their disappointing opening loss, making light work of Thailand 2:0, ahead of the opening ceremony. Wildcard entry USA came close to winning the second set against Thailand in their first match but a golden goal strike from the Asians killed the American dreams.

Brazil are safely though to the main round, but Russia could still exit the competition - they play the USA tomorrow in a winner-takes-all clash to decide one of the two remaining places.

Results
BRA-RUS 2:0 (14:11) (14:12)
THA-USA 2:0 (17:11) (16:15)
USA-BRA 0:2 (11:25) (12:24)
RUS-THA 2:0 (18:10) (20:14)

Group D
Current EHF European champions Norway, who have three consecutive bronze medals in the last three world championships opened up Kazan 2018 with a win against debutants Vietnam but did not play anywhere near their highest level in the early morning game in which the Asian side could have gone in front in the second period with just a few minutes remaining and Norway 11:10 up, but a turnover, a save and a miss all transpired to let the Norwegians off. 

In fact, their neighbours Denmark looked the more impressive, dispatching Vietnam by a bigger margin and Mexico by 46:16 in total, meaning they top the group ahead of Norway, who won their second match, against Mexico 41:27 in total.

Both the Scandinavian teams are now through to the main round, while Vietnam and Mexico play-off tomorrow for the final qualification spot.

Results
NOR-VIE 2:0 (14:11) (17:15)
DEN-MEX 2:0 (18:10) (28:6)
VIE-DEN 0:2 (17:27) (19:26)
MEX-NOR 0:2 (9:19) (18:22)