After finishing 15th out of 16 teams at the 2025 IHF Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship last year, Mexico come to Dakar 2026 facing a big challenge to get through to a podium finish.

And their preliminary group does not do them any favours: Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games silver medallists Croatia are first on the schedule followed by current world champions Spain next – and that is just on day one.

The second day will see the Central American side face Asian champions People’s Republic of China in their final preliminary group game as coach Citlalli Argelian ESTRADA JUAREZ looks to take a win into the quarter-final stage.

“We are well aware that the group stage will be very challenging, but our goal is to give it our all,” said the coach who also oversaw Mexico’s women at an IHF Beach Handball World Championship twice (2018, 2022). 

“The teams in our group are very strong and highly experienced; Spain are the champions of the IHF Women’s Youth World Championship held last year in Tunisia, while Croatia and China are known for their speed, but we will do everything in our power to put in our best performance at these, our first, Youth Olympic Games.”

Her 10-name squad for Dakar 2026 features less than half who played at Tunisia 2025, with necessary due to the age restrictions in place for the Youth Olympic Games. The players for Senegal were pre-selected at the end of August, with a training camp the following month. Finally, a month-long training camp took place in Colima, supported by Mexico’s ‘National Center for the Development of Sports Talents and High Performance (CNAR), which concluded in early November.

In the Dakar 2026 squad selection, left wing Karen Andrea DIAZ SILVA plus centre back Melissa Argelian MONRAZ REYES both appeared in all seven of Mexico’s games at Tunisia 2025, while pivot Daniela Lopez DE LA ROSA played in six and left wing Camila CALLEROS HERNANDEZ played in five.

Both MONRAZ REYES and DE LA ROSA, centre back Alondra Yunuen ALVAREZ MORENO, goalkeeper Melina HERNANDEZ RUBIO, right back Abril ANGUIANO LOPEZ and Maria MUNOZ SOSA were all called up to Mexico’s youth indoor national team earlier this year for the 2026 IHF Women's Youth World Championship in Romania. Mexico finished in 28th place.

Earlier this year, coach ESTRADA JUAREZ took her team to St. Kitts and Nevis for the fourth edition of the senior North America and the Caribbean Handball Confederation (NACHC) Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball Championships. Despite it being a senior tournament, Mexico grabbed bronze, defeating Canada in the medal match, 2-1 (16:14, 12:14, SO 7:4)

Ahead of their travel to Senegal, Mexico’s beach handball team joined the rest of the Mexico delegation for Dakar 2026 at a flag-raising ceremony at the ‘National Centre for High-Performance Athletes (CNAR)’ in Mexico City where it was announced by the Director General of the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sports (Conade), Rommel Pacheco Marrufo, that all members of the Mexico delegation would receive a scholarship ‘…in recognition of their athletic achievements’.

Coach: Citlalli Argelian ESTRADA JUAREZ
Key players: Daniela Lopez DE LA ROSA (Goalkeeper), Karen Andrea DIAZ SILVA (Left Wing), Melissa Argelian MONRAZ REYES (Centre Back), Alondra ALVAREZ MORENO (Centre Back)
Qualification information: Tunisia 2025 – 15th, North America and the Caribbean representative place
History in tournament: 2018: DNQ
Group at Dakar 2026: Group A – People’s Republic of China (CHN), Croatia (CRO), Mexico (MEX), Spain (ESP)