The ‘Danish Beach Handball Dream’ and ‘Rødby Beach Boys’ teams have won their respective women’s and men’s titles at the 2023 EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup.

The pair of Danish teams both won gold at the ninth edition of the European season-ending event, which took place across four days (12-15 October) in Porto Santo, Portugal and featured 15 men’s and 16 women’s teams, representing 11 nations.

Men’s competition

After winning five games in a row 2-0, against London Beach Handball, GRD Leça – Spar, Feyenoord Handbal, Fundación Fomento Deporte CBMP Ciudad de Málaga and Escola de Formação de Espinho - Os Tigres / LEVEL and then Hungarian side HÍR-SAT BHC via shoot-out in their second main round clash, it seemed nothing could stop Rødby Beach Boys on their way to the top of the podium.

But 2022 winners BHT Petra Plock and the strong German side 12Monkeys Köln BHC had other ideas, handing the Danes shoot-out losses.

However, Rødby did not have to wait long to get their revenge on both sides - defeating the Polish champions Plock in the semi-finals 2-0 (22:17, 22:18), a scoreline repeated in the final, against the Germans of Köln, 2-0 (20:16, 24:18)

Mikkel Drud Nielsen had the biggest impact in the first set of the final, the goalkeeper building his own sandcastle in goal for Rødby, helping his side to a 10:0 lead early on. This set the tone for the second set and the Danes cruised to the top of the podium.

“It was an intense game, (played at the) highest level,” said Rødby Beach Boys’s Mikkel Nielsen to eurohandball.com about the final. “We played a good match against a good team. Our performance was perfect; everything, the tactics, execution (was) A+.”

BHT Petra Plock won a consolation bronze, defeating 12Monkeys Köln in the 3/4 placement match.

Women's competition

The Danish Beach Handball Dream side took the women’s title, losing just one of their nine games en route to gold.

Nazaré BHT, Copaca-Bâlerina and Beach Bazis Schleißheim were seen off in the preliminary round, with Brest Bretagne and BHT Conkret Byczki Kowalewo Pomorskie dispatched in the main round. A 2-1 shoot-out loss in their final main round game to 2022 title-holders OVB Beach Girls was their only defeat in Portugal.

The knockout stages saw two shoot-out victories in a row – in the quarter-finals, against Multichem Szentendrei NKE and semi-finals, against CATS A.M. Team Almeria.

The Danes then had a chance to get revenge for their main round defeat to the Beach Girls from Hungary in the final, where they took a 2-0 (17:12, 21:18) victory for gold. The Beach Girls had won all eight of their previous games, including five 2-0.

“I feel great about the game,” said The Danish Handball Dream (DEN) team’s Line Berggren Larsen. “I'm very grateful to play in this team and I think we played amazingly together - I'm just so grateful and happy right now.”

The Beach Bazis side won bronze in a shoot-out against CATS A.M. Team Almeria.

All-star Teams

Over 4,500 votes were cast by fans in a 24-hour period for the two All-star Teams following a long list of six nominees per position nominated by a team of experts.

Men

Goalkeeper       Ricardo Castro, GRD Leça SPAR (POR)

Defender          Thomas van Ophem,  Feyenoord (NED)

MVP                 Joao Pinhal, EFE Os Tigres / LEVEL (POR)

Top scorer        Filip Koper, BHT Petra Plock (POL) - 157 points

Fair play           Beach&DaG U21 Münster (GER)

Women

Goalkeeper       Zsuzsanna Doszpoth, OVB Beach Girls (HUN)

Defender          Catarina Oliveira, GRD Leça - Love Tiles (POR)

MVP                 Line Larsen Berggren, The Danish Beach Handball Dream (DEN)

Top scorer        Belen Gettwart, Beach Bazis Schleißheim (GER) - 145 points

Fair play           The Danish Beach Handball Dream (DEN)

In addition to the All-star Team members being voted in, two All-star Team games took place on the penultimate day of the event.

IHF Women’s World Championship, The World Games and European Championship gold medal-winning coach with Germany, Alexander Novakovic went up against Tamas Neukum in the women’s game which saw the best 20 female players do battle.

Novakovic’s side, called ‘Shaken, Not Stirred’ beat Neukum’s ‘Queens of Porto Santo’ in a shoot-out.

In the men’s clash between the top 20 players, Denmark men’s team coach Gorm Andersen lined up against compatriot Martin Hjortshøj and it also went to a shoot-out, with Hjortshøj’s ‘Bacalhau Mighty Boys’ seeing off Andersen’s ‘Porto Santos Flying Dolphins’.

Photo credit: Kolektiff Images