Ever-presents Thailand hope for top 10 finish

Asian silver medallists Thailand are one of just three women’s nations to have appeared at all three IHF Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championships.

Along with Netherlands and Hungary, Thailand have appeared at Mauritius 2017, Greece 2022 and are now set for Tunisia 2025, but unlike their European rivals, they have never won a medal in the event.

Could that change now? Their preliminary group at Tunisia strongly suggests that they will beat their 2022 ranking of 11th, with debutants Tanzania likely to be a key game for qualification through to the main round as one of the three teams, but match-ups against France and Brazil will be sterner tests.

To qualify for Tunisia 2025, Thailand finished as runners-up at the third edition of the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) Women’s Asian Youth Beach Handball Championship on home sand in Bangkok, Thailand.

Held in a round-robin format with all teams playing each other twice, Thailand beat both Indonesia and Hong Kong, China twice 2-0 each, but lost both games against People’s Republic of China, the second closer than the first. In their opener, Thailand lost 2-0 (20:6, 20:8), but they took them to a shoot-out in the second, taking the first set 21:20, before losing the second 19:14. The shoot-out was one-sided, China taking a 10:4 victory.

Thailand faced Brazil back in the main round of Greece 2022, getting there thanks to a 2-1 (12:10, 11:18 SO 5:3) preliminary group win over fellow South Americans, Uruguay. This had followed two 2-0 losses against Hungary and Poland.

After losing in their main round opener to Spain, Thailand then faced the Brazilians, but were clearly beaten (2-0, 25:10, 16:13). A win against Ukraine (2-1, 6:19, 13:10 SO 6:4) was not enough for the quarter-finals.

Their subsequent 9-16 placement round campaign saw a 2-0 victory over Hong Kong, followed by a 2-0 loss against Ukraine, setting up an 11/12 placement match against host nation Greece which the Asian side won 9:8 via shoot-out.

Back at Mauritius 2017, Thailand impressed, their sixth-place finish coming after wins against Venezuela, Mauritius and American Samoa in the preliminary and main rounds. Defeats came against China in the preliminary round, Portugal via shoot-out and Spain in the main round and then Netherlands in the quarter-finals, followed by Spain in the 5/6 placement match.

Coach Van Wannaphan is well-experienced with beach handball in Thailand, with his history going back decades, including training as a coach in Leipzig, Germany in the early 2000s.

He has named a provisional squad of 11 for Tunisia 2025, led by 17-year-old captain, and defensive specialist, Thimaporn Wanna.

“I am very excited to compete in Tunisia. My teammates and I have been training hard and look forward to competing against the top teams in the world which will help me improve my skills,” she said to ihf.info.

“I hope to gain valuable experience from this competition and meet friends from around the world. I am very glad to be coming to Tunisia 2025.”

Coach: Van Wannaphan
Key player: Thimaporn Wanna (Defensive specialist)
Qualification information: 2024 AHF Women’s Asian Championship – 2nd
History in tournament: 2017: 6th, 2022: 11th
Group at Tunisia 2025: Group A – France (FRA), Brazil (BRA), Thailand (THA), Tanzania (TAN)