Beach handball is set to be one of the big crowd pleasers at the sixth edition of the Asian Beach Games which officially gets underway in Sanya, People’s Republic of China with an opening ceremony on Wednesday 22 April, before concluding on Thursday 30 April.

Men’s and women’s beach handball is one of the key sports of the event with all games being played at the Tianya Haijiao Tourist Area, the men’s competition starting one day ahead of the grand opening (21 April), with the women’s event starting on Thursday 23 April.

Beach handball attracted the largest number of athletes competing out of all 14 sports, with 247 athletes registered pre-event. A total of 24 teams – 15 men’s and 9 women’s – from 17 nations will compete in two initial preliminary groups each in their respective competition. The top two in each will then play off in semi-finals scheduled for Tuesday 28 April and medal matches on Thursday 30 April.

For a full beach handball match schedule, click here and to watch games, click here.

Men’s competition

Group A: People’s Republic of China (CHN), Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), Philippines (PHI), Hong Kong (HKG), India (IND), Sri Lanka (SRI), Bahrain (BRN)

Group B: Oman (OMA), Pakistan (PAK), Jordan (JOR), Maldives (MDV), Bangladesh (BAN), Thailand (THA), Qatar (QAT), Mongolia (MGL)

Women’s competition

Group A: Vietnam (VIE), Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand

Group B: India, China, Turkmenistan (TKM), Sri Lanka, Mongolia

Well-known Vietnamese women’s beach handball team player Lu Ngoc Trinh has been nominated by her nation to be one of the Vietnam flag-bearers, while China’s beach handball player Shen Ping will have the honour of holding her nation’s flag on home sand.

The Omani and Iranian men’s sides arrived last week in China for pre-tournament training camps and friendly matches, with Bahrain taking on Oman, while Qatar’s men’s side, led by coach Khaled Hassan, return to action after a brief hiatus from the continental stage. China held a training camp in Zhanjiang which saw Hungary’s men’s team participate in a joint, week-long training session and friendly match series.

Oman, coached by Hamoud bin Salim al Hassani, had trained intensively at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Bausher, Oman ahead of travelling to Sanya. Sri Lanka held a training camp in Thailand and come off the back of the first Commonwealth Beach Handball Championship held in the Maldives last year and won by Pakistan.

“Our preparation covered both physical and technical aspects over two phases, followed by a focused camp,” said al Hassani to local media ahead of the event. “We structured sessions to maintain sharpness and avoid repetition. Beach handball matches are short and often turn on small details. Focus and mental readiness will be crucial. We are aiming to compete for top positions, but the competition is very strong.”

Beach handball continues to grow in the Asian continent with almost all nations competing holding regular leagues and tournaments. Philippines recently held their debut national championship in March, while Oman now has a youth league, with the 12-team league this season won by Muscat Club – their second, successive title.

Oman’s men and Vietnam’s women are current Asian champions, having won their respective titles last year.

With their gold medal performances, they secured tickets through to the 2026 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia in June where they will be joined by continental rivals Iran (men) and Philippines (women) who finished in the runners-up spots.

Previous editions of the Asian Beach Games have taken place in Bali, Indonesia (2008), Muscat, Oman (2010), Haiyang, China (2012), Phuket, Thailand (2014) and Da Nang, Vietnam (2016) with a 2020 scheduled edition cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.

Beach handball has featured at all five previous editions of the event with Qatar (men) and Vietnam (women) the current title-holders. Pakistan and China (2008), Kuwait and China (2010), Qatar and China (2012), Qatar and Thailand (2012) are the previous men’s and women’s winners respectively.

The 2026 Asian Beach Games features 1,790 athletes from 45 countries and regions competing in 14 sports, 15 disciplines and 62 events: 3x3 basketball, aquatics (open water swimming and water polo), aquathlon, athletics, beach handball, kabaddi, football, volleyball, wrestling, rowing, jiu-jitsu, sailing, sport climbing and teqball.

For more information, visit the official website.