Huynh Minh Ngon’s Vietnam side qualified for their third, successive IHF World Championship after winning the 2023 AHF Women's Asian Beach Handball Championship on Nusa Dua Beach, South Kuta, Bali, Indonesia last year.

Vietnam defended their title in Bali, winning all six of their matches 2-0, not dropping a set and wrapping an unassailable lead in the round-robin group two days before the end of the competition.

The Vietnamese took down the Philippines (22:9, 18:8) before Hong Kong (16:10, 12:6) and Indonesia (16:10, 12:6) in their first round of matches. They then repeated the trio of wins in the same order – against the Philippines (15:8, 20:10), Hong Kong (23:15, 33:6) and Indonesia (22:10, 28:20).

The title also saw the Vietnamese qualify for the 2023 edition of the ANOC World Beach Games – an event in which they finished fourth in its debut in 2019 – but which was later cancelled.

Their performance at the 2019, debut edition of the ANOC World Beach Games in Doha, Qatar, was nothing less than stunning. In the preliminary stage, expected losses against the previous two world champions – Greece 0-2 (22:24, 15:16) and a tight defeat to Spain 1-2 (18:23, 23:18, SO 5:8) – were cancelled out by wins over Poland 2-1 (20:21, 22:16, SO 7:4), People’s Republic of China 2-0 (23:16, 26:15) and Australia 2-0 (17:16. 26:9).

This set up a quarter-final spot against Argentina, full of impetus after some of their squad and coaches had won the Youth Olympic Games gold medal a year earlier, but the Asian champions defeated the South Americans 2-1 (31:22, 16:20, SO 9:8).

But the business end of the tournament was a step too far with two 0-2 losses in the semi-final, against Hungary (14:25, 12:16) and then bronze medal match against Brazil (14:26, 18:23) finishing off their campaign.

China 2024 comes on the back of a disappointing ranking at the 2022 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship, last time out in Greece.
 
Vietnam had arrived on the island of Heraklion having impressed on their world championship debut in 2018, where a winner-takes-all victory over Mexico in the preliminary group was enough to see them into the main round but they just missed out on a quarter-final spot. 

Victories over USA, France and Uruguay ensured that top ten spot, but at Greece 2022, faced again with a preliminary group winner-takes-all match, after 0-2 losses against Denmark and China 2024 opponents Spain, this time against the USA, they lost in a shoot-out 7:8 and went into the consolation round.

After losing to late additions Hungary 0-2 (19:26, 18:21), they saw off Australia 2-1 (16:12, 19:20, SO 7:4) and Mexico 2-0 (21:16, 25:23) in the consolation round. In the 9-16 placement match a 0-2 (20:21, 16:21) defeat against Uruguay put them in the bottom half of the draw, but two, 2-1 victories over Mexico (20:23, 20:18, SO 3:2) and USA (21:20, 20:22, SO 13:12) ensured 13th spot.

Seven of the squad of 10 from Greece 2022 have been named by coach Huynh Minh Ngon in their provisional squad of 17 for China 2024, with some of those having played at Qatar 2019 too.

Top-scorer for Vietnam in Greece, left wing Pham Thi My Hang – who finished 16th with 94 points – is one of the key Vietnamese players, along with specialist Ha Thi Hanh and goalkeeper Thi Sen Train.

For China 2024, Vietnam have been preparing at home, working with experienced, national teams players and some from the 2024 Vietnam National Beach Handball Championship which took place in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in April.

Coach: Huynh Minh Ngon

Key Players: Ha Thi Hanh, Pham Thi My Hang, Lu Ngoc Trinh, Nguyen Thi Tra My

Qualification information: 2023 AHF Women’s Asian Beach Handball Championship – 1st 

History in Tournament: 2004-2016: DNQ, 2018: 9th, 2022: 13th

Group at China 2024: Group B: Spain, Argentina, Vietnam, Croatia