A first time for Denmark men – a first medal too?

After the re-arranged Birmingham 2022 The World Games in the USA saw the Danes unable to make their first scheduled game to a very last-minute flight cancellation from Copenhagen to Alabama, you can be sure that the entire delegation cannot wait to get started at Chengdu 2025.

That will happen on Thursday 7 August when they face Spain and long-term player and captain Martin Vilstrup Jr Andersen is hoping they start as they mean to go on.

“We know Spain well. It’s always tough against them, so we're looking forward to it, and hope that we can get into a flow that can help us achieve our goals,” he said about his preliminary group which also features Tunisia and China.

“We have never met China and have played against Tunisia a couple of times, but we would have liked to have been in group A; that was what we were hoping for – to get the toughest preliminary group as possible.”

It bodes well for Vistrup and his side that both Spain and Tunisia were seen off 2-0 in the main round of the 2024 IHF Men's Beach Handball World Championship held in China last year, with possible future The World Games opponents Brazil (2-1) and Germany (2-0) also beaten, in the semi-final, ahead of a shoot-out loss against Croatia in the gold medal match – their second world championship silver in a row after Greece 2022.

“With our group we face an incredibly tough quarter-final against The World Games record-breaking champions Brazil, or Portugal, who won bronze at the 2024 IHF World Championship, or Germany who came fourth, or the world champions Croatia,” he added.

“Group A has the potential to get an easier quarter-final opponent – on paper –  than us, but we're looking forward to the challenge.

“We believe in ourselves and believe we can be competitive against the best teams in the world. This is our first The World Games ever with the Danish national team and we want to achieve something. We have the level to do something. Our goal is to go to Chengdu and get a medal and we are looking forward to the challenge – and it’s going to be a huge challenge.”

At the European Championship held last month in Turkiye, Denmark beat Croatia 2-0 in the preliminary group stage and Portugal in the main round (2-1), where they lost to eventual winners Germany (0-2).Spain got the better of them in the quarter-finals 1-2 (20:21, 26:24, SO 8:10) and then Portugal got revenge in the 5-8 placement round (2-1, 16:18, 17:16, SO 7:6) as they finished in seventh.

Coach: Gorm Andersen
Key players: Martin Vilstrup Andersen (Pivot), Andreas Sondergaard Hogh (Goalkeeper)
Qualification information: 2nd – 2024 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship
History in tournament: 2001-2017: DNQ, 2022: Withdrew
Group at The World Games Chengdu 2025: Group B – Tunisia, Spain, Denmark, People’s Republic of China