In a shock upset, Argentina’s women will not be competing at the 2025 IHF Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship, and, therefore, the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, after missing out on qualification at the 2024 South and Central American Handball Confederation (SCAHC) Youth (U17) Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball Championships held in Chile last December.

The 2018 Youth Olympic Games gold medallists will be staying at home, with the Argentina’s beach handball and sporting community now looking to their men’s team as their sole representatives on African sand.

Argentina won their continental men’s title impressively seven months ago and will look to get on the podium once again at a global level, following their 2017 world championship bronze – a medal they also secured at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games on home soil.

In Chile, Argentina played a perfect championship, winning five games out of five to dominate their continent. They saw off Paraguay, Uruguay and Peru 2-0 each, while it took shoot-outs to defeat Chile (7:6) in their first game, and Brazil – effectively a title-decider – in their last game (11:10). Even though it was a team effort, Juan Bautista Dirr impressed for Argentina, finishing second in the top-scorers list, with 63 points.

That South American strength will prove useful at Tunisia 2025, with Argentina’s preliminary group also featuring Brazil and Uruguay, as well as debutants Senegal. Their toughest rivals are likely to be Brazil, who took the first set off Argentina last year, but could not keep up with their neighbours, who eventually took that shoot-out win 2-1 (10:18, 18:16, SO 11:10) to record their famous victory. Uruguay were dispatched clearly 2-0 (16:10, 17:12).

“Our main goal is to try to be the best-ranked team from the Americas worldwide,” said coach Andres Bueno to ihf.info. “For that, we have to reach the quarter-finals, so that's the primary goal and of course we aim to win that match. 

“Then, another goal is to bring home a medal. If we do things right, the chances of bringing home a medal are there.”

Argentina, with a widely-developed national beach handball circuit, feeder, scouting and development system, plus representative teams at all ages, and historic medals – including their national women’s team taking silver at the IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship last year – have depth to choose from in any team, with coach Bueno initially selecting a 19-man provisional squad which has now been reduced to 10.

This includes key players Dirr, wing Nicolas Santa Cruz from Sol de Mayo club, defensive specialist and ETIEC’s Lucas Sossich Perrini, plus some new faces, including Lautaro Listanti from the central Argentina city of Cipoletti.

“It was very emotional to hear my name among the 10 players,” said the 17-year-old, who only started playing the beach discipline last year, to local media. “We had to go through a lot of training camps and a lot of roster cuts. I didn't know if they would call me up the following month or if they would cut me. And it was a question of whether to keep going or not, and until the last time you heard your name, it was really nice.”

And for Dirr, it was the same feelings. 

“When they announced my name on the list, I was very happy. It represented all the hard work I'd been putting in since before going to Chile last year. Being able to participate in this tournament is a huge joy,” Dirr told RTN. “Brazil is the toughest of all, but we're going to go out and play and give it our all.”

Last time out, at Greece 2022, Argentina also faced Uruguay in the preliminary group, defeating their continental rivals 2-0 (17:14, 14:13), this, combined with a 2-1 win over Ukraine and 2-0 loss against Germany, saw them qualify through to the main round in second spot.

2-0 wins against Jordan and Greece, and a 2-0 loss against Spain meant that Argentina went through to the quarter-finals where they faced Iran. The eventual bronze medallists handed the South American side an 8:4 shoot-out defeat but Argentina bounced back, seeing off Spain (2-1, 18:16, 15:18, SO 7:4) and then Ukraine (2-0) in the 5-8 placement round to secure fifth.

Coach: Andres Bueno
Key players: Juan Bautista Dirr (Pivot), Nicolas Santa Cruz (Wing), Lucas Sossich Perrini (Defensive Specialist)
Qualification information: 2025 SCAHC Men’s Beach Handball Championship – 1st
History in tournament: 2017: 3rd, 2022: 5th
Group at Tunisia 2025: Group D – Argentina (ARG), Brazil (BRA), Uruguay (URU), Senegal (SEN)