Beach handball made its European Games debut this week in Poland, with Denmark's women and Spain's men taking the first-ever gold medals in the event known as the 'Olympic Games for Europe'.

Both tournaments were held consecutively at the 2,000-capacity Tarnów Beach Arena in Tarnów, east of Krakow, from Tuesday 20 June to Thursday 22 June.

Cool Martin seals gold for Spain
Despite losing their opening game against Norway (0-2), Spain's men then won their next five games to finish top of the podium. Two preliminary group 2-0 wins against the host nation Poland and then Denmark set up a quarter-final against Germany which went to a shoot-out and won 9-8 thanks to a Pablo Martin single-pointer.

That experience helped the Spanish side through to another shoot-out win, against Denmark in their semi-final (9:8), thanks again to a single point from Martin. 

And the final was as tight as possible with both sets being won by a single point and the shoot-out too – and who should score the winning point? Martin. Denmark took bronze, defeating Portugal 8:6 in their shoot-out.

 

 

Danish drama decides debut
2019 ANOC World Beach Games champions Denmark added another debut beach handball event to their locker, taking the 2023 European Games title with a campaign that started and ended with defeats of Spain.

Those two victories were part of a winning run of six games in Poland, which saw the Danes drop just two sets. One of those was in a 2-1 win preliminary round victory over Norway which had followed two 2-0 wins against Spain and the hosts, Poland. 

A straightforward 2-0 quarter-final victory over Portugal then saw a match-up against Germany in the semi-final.

But it was a different Germany team to the all-conquering one which won the European, The World Games and World Championship titles in the past year as part of a 34-game unbeaten run, with head coach Alexander Novakovic giving some of his players a break ahead of the 2023 ANOC World Beach Games.

In Poland, Denmark dispatched the Germans in a high-scoring game 2-0  (28:26, 33:32) to set up a final against 2016 IHF Women's Beach Handball World Championship winners Spain.

And it was a cracker. Unbelievably, both sets saw the score at 20:18 to Spain with 09:52 on the clock and Denmark taking a time-out.

In the first, Camilla Degn came out of the pause to take the set to a golden goal, and despite winning the ball on the restart, Spain's Alba Diaz took too long to decide her next action and the ball was turned over. The Danes wasted no time to strike, with specialist Line Larsen being handed the ball on the left wing and slotting home to take it (22:20).

History then repeated for the second set with Degn again drawing her side level after a time out. However, with three seconds left Jimena Laguna launched a Spanish missile from more than halfway out and her peach of a strike nestled into the top corner of the Danish goal to reactions of disbelief from both sets of players and the fans inside.

The shoot-out was drama until the end, too, with both sides missing a shot in their initial five. With the scores level at 8:8, eventual top-scorer Line Gyldenløve Kristensen put her Denmark side 10:8 ahead. It was down to Spain's Inoa Lucia to score, but after Johanne Uhrhammer in the Danish goal narrowed the angles, the two players came together and Lucia put wide.

Despite the apparent foul, it was decided by the referees to use the video replay system to make sure and after a pause, they whistled in favour of the northern Europeans and they celebrated wildly after a momentous 2-1 (22:20, 20:21, SO 10:8) victory.

Beach handball front and centre
A number of beach handball athletes were in focus at the games, which will feature participants from 48 countries competing in 29 sporting disciplines across 12 days (21 June – 2 July).

Amongst a number of flag bearers, Germany's women's player Isabel Kattner was one of their two flag bearers in the opening ceremony, while Poland's Iwona Niedźwiedź – who wrapped up her international beach handball career at the Tarnów Beach Arena this week – took the 'Oath of Athletes' on behalf of Poland's 370-strong team at the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków in a ceremony attended by Polish Olympic Committee (PKOI) President Radosław Piesiewicz.

"Many people in Poland are more and more interested in beach handball," said Niedźwiedz to Radio Poland after the event. "When you play in front of the home crowd it's the best thing for a player."

Final ranking
Men
1. Spain 
2. Hungary 
3. Denmark 
4. Portugal, 5. Croatia, 6. Norway, 7. Germany, 8. Poland 

Women
1. Denmark 
2. Spain 
3. Germany (GER)
4. Norway, 5. Netherlands, 6. Portugal, 7. Greece, 8. Poland 

Games and highlights of the beach handball tournaments at the 2023 European Games are available free and on demand here. 

Photos: European Games 2023