Croatia 2026 will see something which the IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship has never seen before – a Norwegian women’s coach who is not Eskil Berg Andreassen after former national beach handball team player Katinka Haltvik Tvilde took over from the long-serving and successful coach earlier this year.

As a player, Haltvik was a vocal leader on court and is a multiple medal winner at international level, claiming EHF European Championship gold with Norway in 2017, plus silver in 2015 as well as 2018 IHF World Championship silver and bronze in both 2014 and 2016.

Following her retirement as a player and the birth of her first child, Haltvik moved into coaching in 2021 and has now stepped up to the senior level taking over from Andreassen, who had been in the job since 2004.

Her Norway side come to Croatia 2026 full of energy and confidence, qualifying through thanks to their silver medal at the EHF Women’s European Beach Handball Championship gained last year in Turkiye.

European has been good to Norway, with the nation only failing to finish outside of the top four on just two occasions since 2007. During this time they have won six medals including gold in 2017 in the very same city as Croatia 2026; Zagreb.

The world championship has seen success too for the Norwegians, the last of which was a silver in 2018, coming off the back of gold (2010), and three bronze medals in a row (2012, 2014, 2016) in an impressive run.

But, for nearly a decade now, Norway have not come close to the world championship podium, finishing a lowly 11th on the past two occasions (2022, 2024).

However, that continental performance on the sand in Alanya last year highlights what the team is capable of as Spain could only defeat them in the final via shoot-out, 2-1 (20:24, 28:16, SO 9:6).

“I'm just so proud of the girls,” said Norway’s long-serving Elisabeth Hammerstad to eurohandball.com after losing the final, but who was named in the All-star Team as best defender. “I don't think anyone thought that we could be there, so we are really proud and we are happy that we were there. Of course we wanted to give Spain a harder second half, but we showed that we actually have a team that people should count on.”

Their best performance at the EHF EURO was clearly their semi-final, 2-0 win over the all-conquering German women. This has been preceded by just two losses in their seven games, once against France in the preliminary group stage and against the Germans (0-2) in the main round. Five victories were earned against Turkiye (2-0), Portugal (2-0), Denmark (2-1), Poland (2-0) and Hungary (2-1) in the quarter-final.

At Croatia 2026, Norway have been drawn into preliminary group C, against Greece, Brazil and the United States of America. Two years ago, they played both Greece and the USA at China 2024.

In the preliminary group stage, they saw off the USA 2-0 (22:12, 25:20) and lost to Denmark (0-2) and Netherlands (1-2). The main round saw them lose all three games via shoot-out, against Brazil, Germany and Greece (20:24, 21:16, SO 12:14), before the USA were taken out again, in the 9-16 round 2-0 (17:14, 24:14), losing to Greece again in the 9-12 placement round 1-2 (16:25, 23:22, SO 6:8) and then beating Philippines 2-0 for 11th. 

Five of Norway’s games last time out ended in shoot-outs, with the European side losing all five, highlighting the tight nature of the sport.

The side have had a diverse preparation campaign for Croatia 2026 under their new coach, which started with a trip to West Africa for the 2026 edition of the ‘Nordic Beach Week’ in April.

This saw Haltvik her oversee her first games when Norway played friendlies against Sweden, Angola and Senegal, the new coach remarking on how important the trip was important for strengthening the team identity.

Further preparation will continue when her team arrives in Zagreb as they will face preliminary group opponents Greece, hosts Croatia plus Asian silver medallists Philippines in a friendly tournament.

“This preparation tournament will be important for us,” said the coach. “There we will refine the details, test some small things in a match situation and build even more confidence. Then we are really looking forward to our opening match of against Brazil.”

Haltvik has named a squad almost identical to the EHF EURO silver medallists. Key player Marielle Martinsen returns from injury and is one of the most experienced players, named as 2019 EHF EURO MVP and winning European League bronze with indoor club Viborg just a few weeks ago. EHF Champions League player for Sola HK, Ine Grimsrud, has also been named.

Coach: Katinka Haltvik Tvilde

Key players: Elisabeth Hammerstad, Marielle Martinsen, Ine Grimsrud, Marte Figenschau and Mari Stensrud

Qualification information: 2025 EHF Women’s European Beach Handball Championship – 2nd

History in Tournament: 2004-2006: DNQ, 2008: 6th, 2010: 1st, 2012: 3rd, 2014: 3rd, 2016: 3rd, 2018: 2nd, 2022: 11th, 2024: 11th

Group at Croatia 2026: Group C: Norway, Greece, Brazil, United States of America