A significant milestone will be reached this weekend for Beach Handball with the debut edition of the 'African Handball Confederation (CAHB) Zone 5 Member Countries Beach Handball Tournament and Training' event in Tanzania.

From 22 to 26 February, in capital city Dar es Salaam, 13 teams from Kenya (KEN), South Sudan (SSD), Tanzania (TAN) and Uganda (UGA) will be competing in the sporting action on the sand at Coco Beach.

Under the motto 'Let's Build Beach Handball Together', the ongoing regional and continental expansion of Beach Handball in Africa continues with the match action running alongside coaching, referee and delegate sessions.

The men’s competition will feature two initial groups of four teams each before a knock-out competition, while the women’s competition will be played in a round-robin format:

Men’s competition (8 teams): Kwale Kings Beach Handball Club (KEN), Kilifian Beach Handball Club (KEN), Makerere University (UGA), Ngome Club (TAN), JKT Club (TAN), Jubo City Club (SSD), Magnus School (TAN), Victory (TAN)

Women’s competition (5 teams): Coast Queens Beach Handball Club (KEN), Ngome Club (TAN), JKT Club (TAN), Jubo City Club (SSD), Uganda Police (UGA).

“Beach Handball started around seven years ago in Tanzania and now we have a number of teams playing. It is proving popular because it is a simple game to teach and the rules are not difficult to understand,” said Bruno Johnson, Chair of Beach Handball at the Tanzania Amateur Handball Association (TAHA) to ihf.info.

“Our sport requires people to see it in person so we chose Coco Beach as the venue because it is a very popular area. The audience will see quality competition on show, develop an understanding of Beach Handball and be attracted to it.”

For Kisa Ivan, coach at Ugandan side Makerere University, which started their Beach Handball club in 2017, the near 1,500km journey to participate is crucial for the development of his side, his knowledge and Beach Handball in general in his country.

“It is important for us to have this competition because it increases the number of competitions for our different teams and brings all the Zone 5 nations together promoting unity, networking and brotherhood amongst us all,” he said to ihf.info.

“In Uganda, currently a few teams play Beach Handball and we have no dedicated courts, but we hope many more people get to know, understand and interest themselves in it because it is fun and very interesting to play and watch.

“With this interest we hope that local federations and the Uganda National Council of Sports can increase their support and funding.

“I am so excited – and my team is too – to go and compete as it has been a long time since we last played in competition,” he added. “We are coming to win the competition but we know that it will not be easy.”

For updates and coverage of the event, visit the event Twitter/X feed HERE or Tanzania Amateur Handball Association (TAHA) Facebook page HERE.

About CAHB zones
According to the African Handball Confederation, the continent is split up into seven zones along geographical lines.

Each zone is a working body of the CAHB and has the mission of ‘working towards the development and promotion of handball in its geographical sphere’. All seven of the zones have a President, a sports commission of five members and the obligation to comply with the Statutes and Regulations of the CAHB.

Zone 5 covers the eastern part of Africa which includes Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda plus Egypt.