The Dutch women’s youth team are the most successful in either gender of the IHF Men’s and Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championships.

Two, consecutive silver medals at the 2017 and 2022 editions highlights the consistency of qualify coming from the northern European country.

And their 2025 side has already shown the quality of the 2008 and 2009 generation, coming to Tunisia 2025 as European champions, having won the 2024 YAC 16 EURO in Bulgaria.

On the beach in Varna last year they won all eight of their games, dropping just three sets on their way to gold. Slovakia (2-0), Croatia (2-1), Ukraine (2-1), Turkiye (2-0) and Norway (2-0) were beaten in the preliminary stages before Bulgaria (2-0, quarter-finals), Hungary (2-1, semi-finals) and then France (2-0, final) were dispatched in the knock-out rounds.

While Demi Bakker top-scored for her country with 89 points, Nienke Slippens (65 points) was voted into the tournament All-star Team as MVP thanks to her all-round quality, including spin-shots, saves and in-flights.

Head coach Jip Van Otterloo is assisted by senior national team player Danielle Rozing, with the two also on the bench in Bulgaria.

For Tunisia 2025 they have selected six of the continental gold medal-winning team – Constanca Tavares Guedes, Lynn Verdikt, Slippens, Emma Van Kan, Liz Elsinga and Demi Bakker – with four new additions to the squad: Indy Brouwer, Daphne Schomaker, Vera Jonk and Iza de Hoop.

“We have 10 players, but for me as a coach, they are all key players,” said Van Otterloo to ihf.info.

“When something does not work, we need to change and I need all 10 players for that. We have six players who already played last year at the EURO, which means six players with more experience. 

“We have goalkeepers that can be the key players, we have defenders who block shots and actions so the attackers have some space to make a mistake and we have attackers who are very creative. 

“One of our players (Slippens) became the MVP of the EURO last year,” he added. “She played an incredible tournament, starting only in defence, but ending up playing as a ‘runner’, doing both offence and defence. She was important in crucial moments and rightfully won the award, but at this young age, you can’t give one player all the pressure, which we will not do and simply see what she can bring this year.”

The squad will face Germany, China and Kenya in their Tunisia 2025 preliminary group, with coach Van Otterloo under no illusions about the test ahead.

“Winning the European Championship in Bulgaria last year was an amazing achievement, but does not bring any guarantees for success at Tunisia 2025. We’ve therefore trained very hard again the past year in order to prepare the team in the best possible way for the world championship,” he said.

“We’ve changed four players in the team, which will bring us even more options in terms of play and for the start of the championship on Tuesday we will have to be ready as we start against China, who are the champions of Asia and with us as champions of Europe it promises to be an exciting game.

“Our next match is against Kenya who have some strong girls and then we finish the group against our neighbours Germany, who also have a very strong team. They had some bad luck at the EURO last year, but are definitely a title contender.

“We are looking forward to all of our matches, but our goal is to at least pass the quarter-finals, which means we have to survive the main round and hope we can save our best match for then. When we reach the last four, everything is possible and playing for the medals is something every coach wants, especially with young players.”

As one of the most experienced players in the team, Liz Elsinga, is also the team captain and she, like the rest of the squad has bigger rewards on her mind as she prepares to do battle on the Tunisian sand.

“We dream of qualifying for the 2026 Youth Olympics, which is our main goal and a big adventure,” she explained to ihf.info.

“‘One team, One dream’ is what we stand for and the dream is still alive. This is also our shout before a match, to focus for the reason why we want this as it brings us happiness and focus.

“Our Tunisia 2025 group is so cool as we will against different continents: Asia, Africa and Europe – this is what you want at a world championship. We are curious to see the progress we’ve made, but also for the other teams in the group.”

Like all of the teams at Tunisia 2025, nations will be facing different continents to their own for the first time, learning about the different styles and approaches from different cultures as they prepare to progress as players. 

And for Ronald Thijssen, Head of the Netherlands’ delegation in Tunisia and part of the Netherlands Handball Federation, this is the essence of what the sport is all about.

“Youth selections are all about developing players to ultimately make the senior team. To get them there they will need to gain experience by playing tournaments at the highest level, against the best teams, with the most pressure and Tunisia 2025 will give them all of that,” said Thijssen, to ihf.info.
 
“For our team it will be a new milestone in their beach handball journey. It will be the first time they play against non-European teams, meet players from different cultures and make new friends. They will create memories which will last for years. These tournaments makes them even more passionate about beach handball than they already are today.”

Last time out, at Greece 2022, the Netherlands beat Greece, Puerto Rico and Hong Kong, China 2-0 each in their three preliminary group games. 2-0 wins against Argentina and France were coupled with a 2-0 (21:27, 22:23) loss to Tunisia 2025 opponents Germany in the main round, but this was enough to progress through to a quarter-final spot, where they defeated Brazil (2-0). Hungary were then dispatched by the same score in the semi-final, while Spain squeezed past them in the final, via shoot-out (2-1, 30:16, 22:30, SO 8:6).

At Mauritius 2017, a depleted preliminary group saw the Dutch defeat Chinese Taipei (2-0), and go on to win all three games in the main round, against Croatia (2-0), Argentina (2-1) and Hungary (2-1).

Thailand were seen off in the quarter-finals (2-0) and then Argentina again, in the semi-final (2-0). But Hungary got their revenge in the final, winning via shoot-out.

Coach: Jip Van Otterloo
Key player: Nienke Slippens (Centre Back)
Qualification information: YAC 16 EURO 2024 - 1st
History in tournament: 2017: 2nd, 2022: 2nd
Group at Tunisia 2025: Group B – Netherlands (NED), Germany (GER), People’s Republic of China (CHN), Kenya (KEN)