Newly-crowned men’s and women’s world champions Spain will look to add the European titles to their trophy cabinet as they get their EHF Men’s and Women’s U17 (Youth) Beach Handball European Championships campaigns off to a winning start on Thursday (3 July).

Known officially as the ‘YAC17 EHF Beach Handball EURO 2025’, the championships take place across four days (3 to 6 July) in the southern Turkish beach city of Alanya, with the senior EURO following next week.

18 men’s and 18 women’s teams (36 in total) will compete across four courts in an initial preliminary group stage featuring three groups of six teams each.

The top two in each group, plus two best third-placed sides will then move into the quarter-finals on Saturday (5 July). The semi-finals and finals will be played on Sunday (6 July) with the gold medal games starting at 1900hrs for the men and 2000hrs for the women, local time (CEST).

New winner in women’s competition, with defending champions not present in Alanya

Six women’s teams who competed at the Tunisia 2025 world championships are present in Alanya, with gold medal winners Spain joined by silver medallists Germany, fourth-placed Hungary, sixth-placed France, seventh-placed Croatia and Bulgaria, who finished 13th.

Defending U16 and U17 champions Netherlands, who grabbed bronze at Tunisia 2025, are not competing in Türkiye, leaving 2023 runners-up Hungary as the highest-ranked team from two years ago competing, while France – who took U16 silver last year – will be another strong contender.

“We're going to arrive with enthusiasm, even more so after having won [world championship] gold,” said Spain coach Inma Navarrete to rfebm.com ahead of the event.

“In Tunisia, seven European teams competed and we had to fight with many of them, and overcome difficulties. We're going to meet them again, and they're going to challenge us again. All the teams are going to want to beat us. We have to be very focused, work the same, and approach the matches the same way we did at the world championship.

“We have to work really hard to get a spot in the quarter-finals and then reach the semi-finals and continue to grow. The goal is to maintain this level we've reached.”

Five members of the Tunisia 2025 Women’s All-star Team have been named by their respective nations in the provisional squads, with MVP Mia Herr (Germany), best left wing and top-scorer Carlota Bravo Garcia (Spain), best right wing Csenge Gerzanics (Hungary) and best line player Kenfack Kaijo (France) all set to feature.

Can Spain’s men do the double?

Men’s world champions Spain are joined in Alanya by three other teams who appeared at Tunisia 2025 – the beaten finalists Germany, fourth-placed Hungary and Croatia, who finished 10th.

Hungary won both the 2023 U17 and 2024 U16 European titles and will be one of the favourites in Alanya, but Spain, who finished as runners-up in both will be looking to add another trophy to their collection in the space of just a few weeks.

“We're keeping the same squad that went to the world championship, with the exception of Pablo Sanchez, who will be training with the national team, so we're adding Julio Fis,” said Spain coach Sebastian Hernandez to rfebm.com. “We'll also be adding a centre to give us height. We're going with 12 players, 10 are called up per game, and that allows us to have two full rotations. We can make a better rotation so we can replicate what we did last year, arriving very tired at the end. That way we'll be able to face important matches like the quarter-finals with more confidence.”

Six members of the Tunisia 2025 Men’s All-star Team have been named by their respective countries in their provisional squads, including MVP Marko Forgacs (Hungary), best defender Tayo Finnberg Rodriguez (Germany), best left wing Marcos Garcia Lopez-Ibarra (Spain), best right wing and top-scorer Finn Jacobsen (Germany) and best line player Pablo Sanchez Labrador (Spain).

The YAC17 EHF Beach Handball EURO 2025 is the 15th edition of the younger age European Championships which started back in 2008 with the YAC18 in Hungary. Since then, age groups have varied, depending on the year, ranging from YAC16-19.