Vietnam and Thailand took seven of the eight gold and silver medals on offer at the South East Asian (SEA) Men’s and Women’s Indoor and Beach Handball Championships 2025, which concluded last week in Thailand.

The two championships were held one after the other at the Thailand National Sports University – Suphan Buri Campus, Thailand, with men’s and women’s competitions in both. The indoor championships took place from 4 to 8 February, while the beach championships were played across three days, from 10 to 12 February.

Teams from Indonesia (INA), Philippines (PHI), Singapore (SGP), Thailand (THA) and Vietnam (VIE) took part with Thailand winning the men’s indoor event, Vietnam taking both the women’s indoor and beach titles, and Philippines men securing gold on the sand.

A total of 10 games were played in a round-robin format in the men’s indoor championship, with Thailand winning all four of their games (vs Indonesia 37:21, Singapore 28:23, Philippines 29:19 and, crucially, against Vietnam 40:34) to pip Vietnam to the top of the podium.

The women’s indoor championship consisted of nine games, starting with a group stage and then the four competing teams going directly in the semi-finals and final. In the gold medal match Vietnam defeated Thailand 31:26, their fifth victory in a row, after seeing off the hosts in their opening group game (30:21), which was followed by defeats of Indonesia (28:17), Singapore (30:18) and Indonesia, again, in their semi-final clash (35:15).

After the conclusion of the indoor tournaments, thoughts and action turned towards the sand.

A total of 10 games in a round-robin format were played in the men’s beach handball championship, won by Philippines – their first-ever gold in the competition – who secured wins in three of their four games, against Singapore (2-0), Thailand (2-1) and Vietnam (2-1), which sealed the title ahead of their final game, a surprising loss to Indonesia (0-2). This meant that the Philippines ended on the same number of points as Vietnam, but took the title on their head-to-head result.

“In beach handball, you can’t relax because of the nature of the game, the rules. If you snooze, you lose,” said Philippines coach Jana Franquelli to local media after the victory. “All the games were tough, but we were able to win the most important matches.

“It was good to be back in the sand and we’re happy to be called the champions of South East Asia,” added Franquelli, to ihf.info. “Vietnam and Thailand are strong teams and they won the Championships in 2017 and 2023. I hope we’ll have this event annually so we can play more beach handball in this part of Asia.”

The women’s beach handball championship was played in exactly the same format as the men, with the same fixtures as the male competition each day. As expected, continental powerhouse Vietnam took the honours with a dominant display winning all four of their games 2-0 (Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand, although Indonesia impressed, winning half of their games on the Thai sand. 

“Our results are proof that the Indonesian team's capabilities are increasingly developing and we are proud of their efforts,” said coach of both Indonesia teams, Dwi Chandra Haribowo, to local media after the event. “Of course, in the future, we hope to be able to improve this achievement even more.”

Beach handball teams were using the championships to prepare for the upcoming AHF Men’s and Women’s Asian Beach Handball Championship in Oman. The event takes place from 1 to 10 May and is a qualification event for the 2026 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships.

All games from Thailand were streamed live and free and can be watched again on the official Facebook page for the event HERE.

South East Asian (SEA) Men’s and Women’s Indoor and Beach Handball Championships 2025 – Results and Rankings

Men’s Indoor Handball Championship

Final Ranking
1 THA
2 VIE
3= SGP/INA
5 PHI

Results
PHI vs INA 30:30
VIE vs SGP 34:23
PHI vs VIE 22:29
THA vs INA 37:21
VIE vs INA 38:23
THA vs SGP 28:23
THA vs PHI 29:19
INA vs SGP 23:23
PHI vs SGP 18:26
THA vs VIE 40:34

Women’s Indoor Handball Championship

Final Ranking
1 VIE
2 THA
3= SGP/INA

Results
INA vs SGP 18:26
THA vs VIE 21:30
SGP vs THA 20:28
INA vs VIE 17:28
INA vs THA 11:30
VIE vs SGP 30:18
SF1: VIE vs INA 35:15
SF2: THA vs SGP 26:16
Gold Medal Match/Final: VIE vs THA 31:26

Men’s Beach Handball Championship

Final Ranking
1 PHI
2 VIE
3= THA/INA
5 SGP

Results
INA vs THA 0-2
PHI vs SGP 2-0
PHI vs THA 2-1
SGP vs VIE 0-2
INA vs VIE 0-2
THA vs SGP 2-0
PHI vs VIE 2-1
INA vs SGP 2-0
INA vs PHI 2-0
THA vs VIE 0-2

Women’s Beach Handball Championship

Ranking
1 VIE
2 THA
3= INA/PHI
5 SGP

Results
INA vs THA 0-2
PHI vs SGP 2-0
PHI vs THA 0-2
SGP vs VIE 0-2
INA vs VIE 0-2
THA vs SGP 2-0
PHI vs VIE 0-2
INA vs SGP 2-1
INA vs PHI 2-0
THA vs VIE 0-2