The World Games draw information and team qualification update

The draws for the men’s and women’s beach handball competitions of The World Games 2025 will be made on Monday 7 July at the International Handball Federation (IHF) headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, at 1030hrs (local time, CEST).

The World Games 2025 (TWG 2025) will take place in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China, from 7 to 17 August, with beach handball competitions running from 7 to 12 August.

Team line-up confirmed

To qualify for The World Games, teams had to be best from their continent and in the top 12 of the 2024 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships, held in Pingtan, China.

In the men’s TWG 2025 competition, hosts China are joined by world champions Croatia, silver medallists Denmark, bronze medallists Portugal and the fourth-placed Germany, alongside Brazil (as highest-placed South and Central America team) and Tunisia (as highest-placed African team). The highest-placed Asian team, Qatar, withdrew their participation and have been replaced by Spain, who finished fifth.

The women’s TWG 2025 competition features home nation China alongside world champions Germany, silver medallists Argentina, fourth-placed Denmark, fifth-placed Spain, sixth-placed Portugal and the highest-ranked Asian side, Vietnam, who finished ninth. World championship bronze medallists Netherlands withdrew their participation and have been replaced by seventh-placed Croatia.

Draw information

Eight teams in each competition will be drawn into two preliminary groups of four teams each.

Teams are seeded based on their rankings at the 2024 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships. The men’s and women’s teams of host nation China will be in pot 2. 

Men’s competition

The teams have been seeded as follows:
Pot 1: Croatia, Denmark
Pot 2: Portugal, People's Republic of China
Pot 3: Germany, Spain
Pot 4: Brazil, Tunisia

Women’s competition

The teams have been seeded as follows:
Pot 1: Germany, Argentina
Pot 2: Denmark, People's Republic of China
Pot 3: Spain, Portugal
Pot 4: Croatia, Vietnam

The pots for each competition draw will be drawn in the following order: Pot 4, Pot 3, Pot 1, Pot 2.

As hosts, the People's Republic of China has the right to choose the group they will compete in. The draw will pause before pot 2 is drawn while the Chinese Handball Association decide which of the four groups they want to be in.

The draws will be streamed live on Monday 7 July at 1030hrs (local time, CEST) on the IHF YouTube channel.

The World Games 2025 Chengdu: Beach Handball – qualified teams

Men’s competition
1. People’s Republic of China (CHN)
2. Croatia (CRO)
3. Denmark (DEN)
4. Portugal (POR)
5. Germany (GER)
6. Brazil (BRA)
7. Spain (ESP)* 
8. Tunisia (TUN)

Women’s competition
1. People’s Republic of China (CHN)
2. Germany (GER)
3. Argentina (ARG)
4. Croatia (CRO)**
5. Denmark (DEN)
6. Vietnam (VIE)
7. Spain (ESP)
8. Portugal (POR) 

*Replaced Qatar, **Replaced Netherlands

About The World Games
The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the IWGA, organised with the support of the International Olympic Committee.
 
Chengdu 2025 will be the 12th edition of The World Games, the most recent being held in Birmingham, USA, last July, with 3,600 athletes from 34 sports and 100 countries taking part.

Beach handball has been part of The World Games since it was introduced as a demonstration/invitational sport in Japan in 2001. It followed in Germany (2005) and Chinese Taipei (2009), before becoming a full sport at the 2013 edition in Colombia and then continuing in Poland (2017), before the USA (2022), where Croatia (men) and Germany (women) won the beach handball titles.

The 12th edition of The World Games will take place from 7 to 17 August 2025 in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China with Beach Handball one of over 30 sporting disciplines on the event programme. 

For further information, visit www.theworldgames.org.