2025 will go down as an historic year for Spain’s women’s team – just like it was for the whole of Spanish beach handball – after they won continental gold for the first time ever at the 2025 EHF EURO in Turkiye.

Their medal was complimented by their men’s team winning silver at the same event and came off the back of both their youth sides topping the podium at the 2025 IHF Men’s and Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championships in Tunisia in June. Spain’s women also won gold in the Youth EHF EURO too later that year.

Spain remains a key factor in helping the sport of beach handball grow – their Arena Beach Handball Tour is one of the biggest in the world and numerous, large-scale competitions run throughout the country which has produced some of the best players in the world.

And those players showed their standard at the 2025 EHF EURO in July when they defeated Norway 2-1 (20:24, 28:16, SO 9:6) in the final to win their first-ever women’s continental title.

Coach Juan Pablo Morillo’s side came from behind to win the second set strongly, led by Mariam Gonzalez, Jimena Laguna and impressive goalkeeping from Patricia Encinas, Encinas causing the Norwegians, through Cornelia Haugen, to hit the post, setting up competition MVP Sara Hernandez with the single point to seal the continental title, Mariam Gonzalez saying “…we are in a dream,” after the victory.

The path to continental gold was not a smooth one for the Spanish. Two 2-0 wins, against Ukraine (14:6, 24:22) and Slovakia (22:14, 26:18) ensured a main round spot, but they ended the preliminary stage with a loss against Hungary, 0-2 (14:15, 18:19). This was followed with another loss, against Netherlands 0-2 (16:20, 22:27) in their main round opener, but Morillo got his side back on track with two 2-0 wins, against Sweden (22:8, 16:8) and Greece (16:14, 21:12). 

This ensured qualification through to the last eight, where France were dispatched 2-0 (20:18, 15:14). A rematch against the Dutch in the semi-final saw an improved Spanish side ease to a 2-0 (21:18, 22:20) victory to make the final, after which Sara Hernandez was voted as MVP in the tournament All-star Team.

But 2025 was not complete for Spain after the EHF EURO, with two more competitions to come – the first of which was The World Games 2025 held in Chengdu, China.

On the shores of Xinglong Lake, Spain made it all the way to the bronze medal match after defeating Denmark (2-0) and Vietnam (2-1) but losing to Germany (0-2) in the preliminary round, before beating Portugal (2-0) in the quarter-finals and then losing to eventual winner Argentina (1-2) in the semi-finals.

In that bronze medal match they saw-off ANOC World Beach Games champions Denmark 2-0 (20:16, 18:10), Mariam Gonzalez Llambrich – in her first tournament – scoring 15 points for the Spanish team, who were down to just nine players after defensive specialist Violeta Gonzalez Poudereux picked up an injury. 

And following two IHF Beach Handball Global Tour stage victories on the 2025 tour, Spain made it through to the 2025 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour: Finals at the end of the year. However, they left Brazil disappointed, losing three of their four games in the season finale, against Argentina (0-2), Brazil (1-2) and Poland in the bronze medal match (0-2), despite beating the European side 2-0 in the preliminary group stage.

It has been a decade since Spain picked up their only world title so far – the 2016 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship in Budapest, Hungary – and 10 years on they look in the best position to add another table-topping medal to their collection, led by the legendary Asuncion Batista, who was part of the gold medal-winning squad and who was recently named as an ‘Athlete Role Model’ (ARM) for the upcoming Youth Olympic Games.

At Croatia 2026 Spain will face the hosts, plus debutants Cook Islands and second-timers Puerto Rico. Croatia are the only team they have met so far, with a record of 13 wins and 10 losses from their 23 encounters – the most recent world championship meeting taking place at China 2024 with Spain taking a 2-0 (13:12, 23:17) win. The games against both Cook Islands and Puerto Rico in Zagreb will be the first time the teams have played each other.

“Our latest training camp was highly successful, with full commitment from the players, excellent physical condition, and an outstanding level of play,” said coach Morillo to ihf.info on the eve of the championship.

“The team was able to work on all the planned concepts and further develop its playing systems to continue growing as a competitive unit. This preparation allows us to approach the world championship with enthusiasm and optimism, aiming to replicate last season’s successes while progressively adapting to the challenges posed by our opponents throughout the tournament.”

Coach: Juan Pablo Morillo

Qualification information: 2025 EHF Women’s European Beach Handball Championship – 1st

Key Players: Asun Batista, Alba Diaz, Jimena Laguna

History in Tournament: 2004-2006: DNQ, 2008: 2nd, 2010: 9th, 2012: DNQ, 2014: 5th, 2016: 1st, 2018: 4th, 2022: 2nd, 2024: 5th

Group at Croatia 2026: Group B: Spain, Croatia, Cook Islands, Puerto Rico