The 2023 Jarun Cup took place across five days from 27 April to 1 May at the beautiful Jarun Lake in the south-west of Croatia’s capital city Zagreb.

It marked the 15th edition of the event which is a mainstay on the EHF European Beach Handball Tour (ebt) circuit with not only points up for grab towards the ebt finals, but also the much-coveted Jarun Cup title.

A number of different aged tournaments were held with the men’s and women’s senior competitions joined by five younger age categories: those born in 2006 or younger, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014.

In total, 64 teams from 17 countries played 216 matches with a number of IHF referees and officials also involved.

In the men’s senior competition, the France men’s national team took gold, defeating Hungarian side Squadra Buda in the final, thanks to a 9:6 shoot-out win. 
 

Yohan Bourgueil sunk home the winning single point for the French in the shoot-out after the Hungarians had seen their fourth shot saved. Nicolas Desbonnet had scored the winning single point with just two seconds left of the first period to put his side 1-0 ahead, but their opponents came back strong in the second to take a clear 20:13 win and take it to shots.

France won all seven of their games en route to men’s gold, including a 2-0 quarter-final win over Norway.

Hungarian side OVB Beach Girls also won all seven of their games on their way to women’s gold, including a 7-4 shoot-out victory over their country rivals Multichem Szentendrei NKE in the final. 
 
 
OVB Beach Girls took the first set 19:18 thanks to a golden goal from Brigitta Lovász. The second set also went down to the wire but, this time, it was Multichem Szentendrei NKE who won it with Fanni Friebesz scoring a penalty shot with a handful of seconds left on the clock to make it 10:9. 

OVB had scored a single point earlier with just over 10 seconds remaining to go ahead 9:8 in a defensive set, but it was not enough and the game went to shots.

The shoot-out saw an early save from each team, but when Dora Berkesi saved the fourth Multichem Szentendrei NKE strike, OVB’s Gabriella Landi was left with a single pointer to seal the title and she duly did.

On the fringes of the club action, a friendly men’s national team tournament was held, with representative teams of France, Croatia and Norway playing preparation games for the 2023 EHF Men’s Beach Handball Championships, which will take place in Portugal later this month. A fourth national team, Slovakia, were also at Lake Jarun, participating in the women’s senior competition.

The Jarun Cup 2023 also saw the presence of the ‘HandbALL IN’ project, a sport-inclusive programme for young people with developmental disabilities founded by former professional handball player and member of the Croatian national team Maida Arslanagic.

For more information, on-demand videos and full results of the 2023 Jarun Cup, visit here.

Ranking

Women’s Senior Tournament
1. OVB Beach girls
2. Multichem Szentendrei NKE
3. BHC Dubrava

Men’s Senior Tournament
1. France
2. Squadra Buda
3. Escola de Formacao de Espinho - Os Tigres