The match schedule for stage 3 of the 2023 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour has been revealed.

A total of 16 matches will be played in Płock, Poland, across this weekend (Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 July). 

Host nation Poland are joined by Croatia and Denmark in both the men's and women's competitions, with Germany's women and Qatar's men bringing each event up to four teams each.

The first day of action on Saturday will be entirely preliminary group games, split into one late morning/early afternoon session and one evening session. At the same time, Sunday will see an early morning session comprise of the final preliminary group games.

The top two teams in each gender will then go through to the finals, played in the early evening, with the 3/4 placement matches preceding them in the afternoon.

Match Schedule
(all times local, all matches will be streamed live on the IHF YouTube Competitions channel)
 
 

 

Men's competition
Hosts Poland, along with Asian powerhouse Qatar, are joined by The World Games and IHF World Championship title-holders Croatia and European bronze medallists Denmark in the men's tournament, which features eight games.

“It’s the crème de la crème of the handball world on the sand,” said Croatia coach Mladen Paradžik to ihf.info. "Denmark, who have expanded their staff and introduced new members to the national team at the European Games, the always unpleasant-to-play Qatar, who break opponents with experience, and Poland, who will have help from the stands and the host atmosphere.

"This is all guarantees us excellent matches," he added. "At the same time, after the Global Tour, the Mediterranean Beach Games are waiting for us, so this will be an opportunity to try out a few new players for future competitions. In general, an extremely interesting week awaits us in Poland."

His captain, Ivan Jurić, agrees. "Denmark is our most difficult European rival as most of the games we play against them are very intense with close results," he explained. "This stage gathers the world's elite teams and it will be hard to win all the games. 

"But this is what we want; we are Croatia, we are always going for the win regardless of our current shape and condition."

Opening up the competition will be the clash between those two medal-laden European teams, while Qatar take on the home side in the second match of the day. Denmark then face Qatar later with the men's first day of action ending with the Poland vs Croatia clash. 

The final round of preliminary games sees Poland face Denmark and Croatia take on Qatar on Sunday 23 July, with the men's final played at 18:00 and bronze just before, at 16:00.

"If you look at the world rankings, Poland will probably be near the bottom, but because they are the home team, they have home advantage with a lot of spectators probably," says Denmark's coach Gorm Andersen to ihf.info. 

"Therefore, I will say all the games are equal. I have a little eye on Qatar, but I think it depends on which players they come with, but they have, for sure, some really quality players."

"We have a lot of information about Denmark and Croatia because we have competed against each other a lot and know each other well," said Qatar's Mohamed Zaky to ihf.info. "I am expecting to be in the final against Croatia, as it was in The World Games last year."

Women's competition 
Four teams will play eight games to decide the Stage 3 winners, with hosts Poland joined by Croatia and two teams who hold all the titles available to them: Germany – IHF World Championship, The World Games and European Championship – and Denmark – ANOC World Beach Games and European Games.

And it is that clash between those two podium-toppers which opens up the stage on Saturday at 11:00. This is swiftly followed by Poland taking on Croatia and then the Croatians returning to action after the middle of the day break, when they face Germany. The hosts then play Denmark to close out Saturday.

"I can't really say that I know the teams well because this season was my first appearance for the national team," explained Croatia's Anja Haramina to ihf.info. "Denmark are a big threat because of their speed and every year they show good younger age category players.

"As current European champions, Germany will be a tough opponent, but if I take into account our match against them in Portugal at the recent European Championship, which was not so bad, and their performance at the European Games, where we saw that they are not invincible, anything is possible.

"The Croatian girls played with the Polish girls last year on the Global Tour and they were a pleasant surprise with the local support a great help to them."

After Denmark and Croatia, followed by Germany and Poland are completed in the early morning on Sunday, the top two in the preliminary round-robin group will be known and they will go straight into the final at 17:00, with the bronze medal game at 15:00.

"We have met all the teams before and, of course, Germany will be the big team to beat," said Denmark coach Morten Frandsen Holmen to ihf.info. 

"I think they will come with the best players and if they do, they will be a hard opponent but we will try. We met Croatia at the European Championships and Poland in in the European Games this year and we beat them both so I think we can beat them too.

"This season, finishing seventh in the European Championships was not good enough, but that's how it is," he added.

"But we then won gold at the European Games. It was a fantastic result for us and we're very happy, so it's been, until now, a good season. Of course we are very disappointed not to go to Bali in August (for the now-cancelled 2023 ANOC World Beach Games) but now we go to Poland and we're looking forward to it. It's three big and good teams (for us) so we must be at our best to beat them."