Portugal’s women and Croatia’s men have won the opening stage of the 2026 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour (BHGT) and with it, booked a place in the finals of the global event to be played later this year.

Stage 1 of the 2026 BHGT took place in Zagreb, Croatia as part of the beach handball festival which is the Jarun Cup – the traditional curtain-raiser for the EHF’s European Beach Handball Tour (ebt).

In total, 16 games (8 men’s, 8 women’s) were played across two matchdays – Thursday 30 April and Friday 1 May – with the stage featuring Serbia, Poland, Portugal and host nation Croatia in both the men’s and women’s competitions. 

The event also helped with preparations for the upcoming 2026 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships in June, which will take place at the same venue – Jarun Lake.

 

Host nation men do the business in Zagreb

Ahead of the tournament, any regular watchers of beach handball would have said that the men’s final would be played between Portugal and Croatia, two of the top three teams at the last world championship and now regular competitors for the top honours in the global game.

The two met in the semi-finals of the 2024 IHF Men’s World Championship (won by Croatia 2-0), The World Games 2025 (Portugal won 2-1) and 2025 EHF EURO (won by Croatia 2-1) but on the shore of Lake Jarun on ‘Labour Day’ public holiday, it was the Croatians who ended with bragging rights again, taking a 2-1 (20:18, 18:23, SO 7:4) shoot-out win after the Portuguese team had missed their first two shots.

Bronze went to Serbia, who have announced their intentions to get back amongst the best once more after returning to international competition.

A tight, high-scoring second set was won by the Serbians, which saw the game go to shoot-out after Poland had sealed a 21:18 first set win. But their shoot-out skills left them, as they missed their first three shots and Nikola Perleta’s single point for Serbia with their third shot sealed the deal.

“I’m feeling really good. First of all, I need to say congrats to team of Portugal. It was a really good game, tough game. It was really exciting, for us in the game and for the crowd,” said Croatia’s Luka Bakovic to ihf.info. 

“I cannot say it's only luck, but we won against them in the group and we knew that the final would be a new game.”

Ahead of the medal matches, the first day and a half had seen six preliminary group games played, Croatia ending top of the initial phase, with three wins from three and six points, followed by Portugal (4 points), Poland (2) and Serbia (0).

Highlights of that first phase included 21 points from Portugal’s Tiago Costa in their 2-0 (21:16, 21:20)  win over Serbia and two, crucial single pointers from Poland’s Sereda in their 2-1 win over the Serbs – his strike in the second set taking it to shoot-out and then bringing a win home to capitalise on a Serbia miss in the shoot-out and take a 9:8 victory.

 

Portugal buzzing with first-ever BHGT stage win

After competing on the tour previously, Portugal’s women got their rewards in Croatia, taking down Poland 7:4 in their gold medal match shoot-out after the Polish team missed two of their own shots.

The first period was clearly won by the Portuguese (16:6), but Poland reset and came back strongly in the second (16:12) to push the final all the way.

Host nation Croatia collected the first medal of the day for the home team when they defeated Serbia 2-0 (20:18, 21:16) for bronze.

The Croatians had narrowly missed out on a gold medal match place after they had ended the preliminary group stage equal on points (4) with both Poland and Portugal, but with the worse set difference of 0, having won four and lost four, falling just behind Portugal (5/3 +2) and Poland (5/2 +3). Serbia had ended in bottom spot, losing all three of their games.

Highlight of the six preliminary games included three going to shoot-outs (Portugal v Croatia, Poland v Portugal and Croatia v Serbia), with the neighbour derby between Croatia and Serbia going to a second round of shot after both missed one in the opening five attempts.

Malgorzata Rawicz-Rotowska key point for Poland at the end of the first set against Croatia, put them o their way to a 2-0 (17:16, 19:8) win, while Portugal’s Patricia Periquito score 15 points in a 2-0 (23:20, 23:14) victory over Serbia.

“It was hard because we had some new players in the team. We didn't have time to practice so everything just happened so naturally, and we fight, fight, fight and, in the end, we did it,” said Portugal’s Carolina Loureiro to ihf.info.

“It's very simple,” she added about the difference between her side and Poland in the final. “The difference is we believe and we fight harder. Plus, we are very good friends, and we support each other, so like this, it's easy.”

Brazil are the current IHF Beach Handball Global Tour title-holders, having won both the men’s and women’s gold medals in the finals last year.

Matches from Stage 1 of the 2026 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour can be watched again on the IHF Competitions YouTube Channel.

2026 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour – Stage 1: Zagreb, Croatia

Rankings

Men’s competition
1 Croatia*
2 Portugal
3 Serbia
4 Poland

Women’s competition
1 Portugal*
2 Poland
3 Croatia
4 Serbia

*Qualified through to the 2026 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour: Finals

Results

Preliminary round – Men
Portugal vs Serbia 2-0 (21:16, 21:20)
Croatia vs Poland 2-0 (25:22, 30:20)
Poland vs Serbia 2-1 (14:22, 17:16, 9:8)
Croatia vs Portugal 2-0 (21:18, 21:20)
Poland vs Portugal 0-2 (18:25, 16:27)
Serbia vs Croatia 0-2 (16:21, 20:23)
Bronze medal match: Poland vs Serbia 1-2 (21:18, 30:31, SO 0:5)
Final: Croatia v Portugal 2-1 (20:18, 18:23, SO 7:4)

Preliminary round – Women
Serbia vs Poland 0-2 (18:21, 20:22)
Portugal vs Croatia 1-2 (13:6, 8:17, SO 6:8)
Poland vs Portugal 1-2 (12:7, 12:14, SO 8:9)
Croatia vs Serbia 2-1 (14:16, 20:14, SO 9:8)
Croatia vs Poland 0-2 (16:17, 8:19)
Serbia vs Portugal 0-2 (20:23, 14:23)
Bronze medal match: Croatia v Serbia 2-0 (20:18, 21:16)
Final: Poland v Portugal 1-2 (6:16, 16:12, SO 4:7)

Credit photo: kolektiff / Uros Hocevar / Jozo Cabraja