With their sixth place finish at the YAC 16 EURO last year in Bulgaria, Spain’s hopes of defending their 2022 IHF Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship title, won in Greece, had disappeared.

But after a qualification spot allocated for the North America and Caribbean Handball Federation (NACHC) became available, Spain were asked to be the replacement and they duly accepted.

Bulgaria had started with a bang for Spain with five preliminary wins out of five, against Switzerland, Sweden, France, Czechia and Portugal. They were then stopped by Hungary in the quarter-finals via shoot-out before bouncing back in the 5-8 placement round, defeating Tunisia 2025 group opponents Bulgaria 2-1 (20:8, 20:21, SO 7:2) and then losing to Germany 2-1 in the 5/6 placement match.

On their way to the title at Greece 2022, Spain beat Brazil, Ukraine and India 2-0 in the preliminary stage, Poland and Thailand 2-0 in the main stage – with a 5:4 shoot-out loss to Hungary their only blemish. Argentina were seen off 2-0 in the quarter-finals, Poland 2-1 in the semi-finals and then the Netherlands in the final 2-1 (30:16, 22:30, SO 8:6).

At Tunisia 2025, Spain will face Croatia, Uruguay and Bulgaria in their preliminary group.

“We know two of the three teams in the group quite well,” explained coach Inma Navarrete, who was also coach in Bulgaria last year, to ihf.info. “We faced Bulgaria in the last Beach Handball EURO, and we have Croatia well-studied – both teams will challenge us. We open against Croatia, who finished third in Europe, while Uruguay are an intense, crafty team that pushes the limits.

“These are three teams that will make things difficult for us, although we also have our strengths. We hope to compete in all three matches without losing 2-0 to anyone. We need to improve the small details. The objective is to compete against all teams in the Preliminary Round and in the Main Round. First, to reach the Main Round, and then to get to the quarter-finals. From there, we’ll see. The level at this world championship is very high.”

Her 10-woman squad includes the deadly left wing Carlota Bravo Garcia, who scored 195 points in Bulgaria, along with seven other players from that 2024 squad. New additions in 2025 include Berta Salas Vallejo and Iraia Berroeta Sanchez.

“Participating in a world championship is the most special moment in their sporting lives at such an early age and they will experience it in a country like Tunisia, which has been actively involved in the development of beach handball,” said Francisco V. Blazquez, President of the Royal Spanish Handball Federation (RFEBM), to ihf.info.

“We all share the objective of having beach handball included in the Olympic Games as an official summer Olympic discipline and all the federations, together with the IHF, are united in working toward that goal.”

Coach: Inma Navarrete
Key players: Carlota Bravo Garcia (Left Wing), Victoria Gomez Garcia (Defensive Specialist), Elena Alfaro Munoz (Pivot)
Qualification information: Replacement for NACHC allocation (YAC 16 EURO 2024 - 6th)
History in tournament: 2017: 5th, 2022: 1st
Group at Tunisia 2025: Group D – Croatia (CRO), Uruguay (URU), Spain (ESP), Bulgaria (BUL)