The People's Republic of China return to IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship action after a 12-year gap which has seen Vietnam emerge as Asia’s deadliest threat on the global, women’s stage.

On a continental level, China have not competed since they won the seventh edition of the AHF Women’s Beach Handball Asian Championship on home sand in Weihai five years ago in June 2019.

China withdrew from the 2023 continental event – the ninth edition – before it threw-off, and could not attend the covid-restricted 2022 championship (eighth edition).

Back in 2019, they put in a dominant performance, winning all five of their games in the round-robin event – against Japan (2-1), Hong Kong (2-0), Chinese Taipei (2-0), Vietnam (2-0) and Thailand (2-0).

This had meant qualification through to the 2020 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship in Pescara, Italy, but then the global pandemic struck and the event was cancelled.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s China competed at three IHF Women’s World Championships finishing in the bottom three places each time but improving from a 12th and bottom-placed finish in 2008, to 11th in 2010, and then into the top 10 in 2012, finishing ninth, but since then, they have been almost non-existent on the world stage.

That changed in 2019 when after winning their continental title, they qualified through to the inaugural edition of the ANOC World Beach Games which took place in Doha, Qatar.

On the Qatari sand they were drawn into a tough preliminary group which saw them lose to then world champions Greece, former world champions Spain along with Vietnam and Poland, but they did secure one win in the first stage, a 2-0 win over China 2024 preliminary group opponents Australia.

In the 9-12 placement round, they saw off African champions Tunisia with ease, 2-0, to set up a 9/10 placement match against the USA, which saw sets of 24:16 go to each team and China winning the subsequent shoot-out 5:4.

Out of that team in Qatar, specialist Xianji Wei, left wing Jijuan Du and goalkeeper Yunhan Liu, remain, named in China’s provisional squad of 19 with the then captain and specialist Ping Shen no longer playing.

More recently on the global stage, China were invited to the 2023 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour Finals event, held at the same venue in Doha as the 2019 ANOC World Beach Games.

The invite was to help them prepare for their forthcoming hosting of the world championship and they impressed in Qatar, beating Tunisia twice 2-0 to finish third, behind Poland and Brazil.

While it may have been expected for the Asian side to have lost their opener against Poland – which they did 0-2 (14:16, 16:21) – after not having played an international team for four years, they showed what they were capable of later on the opening day when they shocked a Brazil team full of multiple medallists and winners, taking the first set 20:14.

But Brazil came back heavily in the second, to take as comprehensive set win as possible in Beach Handball – 14:3 and so it went to a shoot-out. With China missing their second and third shots, Brazil did not waste any time securing a 9:6 win to win the game, but that was a hint of what is possible from this China side.
And their home fans will be hoping they can show it as they chose what appears to be – on paper at least – the easiest group to qualify from.

As hosts, they had the right to choose and selected Preliminary Group A which features Portugal, Australia and debutants Philippines. With the European side widely expected to finish top, it will be interesting to see the battle between the remaining three sides for the final two spot with all three teams capable of beating each other on any given day.

Leading long-term coach Shang Xi’s China side will be goalkeepers Yuhan Liu and Wenna Fan, with right wing Xinmiao Hou, left wing Jijuan Du and specialist Mingyue Sun looking to capitalise in front of their opponents’ goals.

Coach: Shang Xi

Key Players: Wei Xianji, Du Jijuan, Liu Yunhan, Xinmiao Hou, Su Mingyue

Qualification information: Hosts

History in Tournament: 2004-2006: DNQ, 2008: 12th, 2010: 11th, 2012: 9th, 2014-2022: DNQ

Group at China 2024: Group A: Portugal, People’s Republic of China, Philippines, Australia