Men’s and women’s beach handball featured in the inaugural edition of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) Beach Games, held from 20 December 2020 to 2 January 2021 at the Aspire Park in Doha, Qatar.

The event is a legacy of the overwhelming success of the debut edition of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) World Beach Games, held in Doha in 2019, and which saw Denmark and Brazil win the women’s and men’s beach handball competitions, respectively.

Four sports which featured in 2019 also featured at the QOC Beach Games 2020 with beach handball joined by beach football, beach volleyball and 3x3 basketball.

The 14-day multi-sport, community event was free and open to all, with more than 500 male and female athletes from the community participating after registering their interest online. The competition is one of many community events and activities organised by the QOC annually to ‘take all individuals of the society to greater standards of health and physical fitness’ according to the QOC website.

The QOC Beach Games 2020 opened with an impressive ceremony attended by the QOC Secretary General HE Jassim Rashid Al-Buenain, Aspire Zone Foundation CEO Mohammed Khalifa Al-Suwaidi, and presidents of the national sports federations, including Qatar Handball Association (QHA) President Ahmed Mohammad Al Shaabi.

And like in 2019, beach handball proved to be one of the most popular events on show for spectators, with 26 games played (10 women, 16 men).

The women’s competition featured four teams: Msheireb, Lusail, Al Shaqab and Yasminat Tunisia playing in an initial round-robin group, followed by semi-finals and the medal matches. In the end, it went down to a shoot-out in the final with Al Shaqab repeating their 2-1 victory over Yasminat Tunisia.

The men’s competition featured eight teams spread across two preliminary, round-robin groups. Group A featured Al Fohoud, Al Edaid, Al Nosour and Al Soqour. While Group B saw Al Hazm, Al Ruwais, Al Nomor and Al Khafji do battle. 

The top two teams in each group then played each other in the semi-finals, before the winners moved into the medal matches with Al Edaid defeating Al Khafji 2-1, after winning 10:8 in the shoot-out following their first period 23:21 win and second period 12:14 loss.

Beach handball featured officials and referees from the QHA, while men’s national beach handball team coach Aly Khaled supervised proceedings.

QHA President Ahmed Mohammad Al Shaabi took part in the presentation and closing ceremony alongside officials from the QOC and various federations, plus Maldives Olympic Committee Secretary General Ahmed Marzooq, who also took in some beach handball action earlier in the day.

“We are carrying forward the legacy of the 2019 ANOC Beach Games,” said Khalil al-Jaber, QOC Director of Sports Affairs to local media after the competition closed.

“More than 500 people participated in the first edition, so we are now aiming for the next one to be bigger in terms of participation. We now have the experience, and we will study all the aspects, and then create a totally different event for the second edition.”