With the third edition of the IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship throwing-off in Hammamet, Tunisia later this month, ihf.info takes a look at the second edition, held three years ago in Greece.

The background: Following the debut of the championship at Mauritius in 2017, the second edition had been set for Nazaré, Portugal in 2021, but was initially postponed to 2022 due to the covid pandemic before subsequently being cancelled. The championship was then put out to tender by the IHF in May 2021 with Greece nominated in November 2021 and then later confirmed.

The event: The second edition of the IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship, featuring 16 teams playing 72 games at the ‘Karteros Beach Sports Center’ on the Greek island of Heraklion, from 14 to 19 July 2022.

What was new: A full, 16-team men’s competition was held for the first time, following the debut edition in 2017 featuring 15 teams, after Brazil had withdrawn.

It was the first time a youth world championship had been held after the debut of beach handball at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The competition also marked the first time the youth event had been held in Europe, and the first at the newly-created Karteros venue, which was to be used fully for the first time at the then upcoming 3rd Mediterranean Beach Games.

The competition: The draw took place in May 2022 at the Aquila Atlantis Hotel in Heraklion and also included the draws of both the 2022 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships and 2022 IHF Women’s Youth (U18) Beach Handball World Championship.

The draw saw special guests Eleftherios Avgenakis, Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports and MP for Heraklion, alongside Giampiero Masi, Chairman of the IHF Beach Handball Working Group, Hellenic Handball Federation President Konstantinos Gkantis, Local Organising Committee President Konstantinos Violitzis, “Heraklion 2022” Event Manager Panagiotis Traikoglou and Michael Batiste, assistant coach for the NBA basketball side Washington Wizards and former basketball legend in attendance.

The competition format consisted of an initial four preliminary groups of four teams each. After playing each other in their group once, the top three in each group went through to two main round groups of six each. The bottom team in each preliminary group dropped into a consolation round.

The top four teams in each main round group then went into the knockout stages, starting with the quarter-finals, then semi-finals and medal matches. The bottom two teams in each group then moved into the 9-16 placement round where they faced the teams from the consolation round.

Who won: Croatia

You can view the mini-site on IHF.info HERE.

Review: Spain came to Greece 2022 as title-holders and 2018 Youth Olympic Games gold medallists, nearly boasting a treble of titles, after losing the preceding year’s European championship final by one point in a shoot-out to Sweden, who themselves fancied their chances on the Cretan sand.
Brazil, having missed out at the last-minute on appearing at Mauritius 2017, wanted to make this one count, while Iran had a trick up their sleeve, employing legendary Brazil beach handball coach Antonio Guerra Peixe to oversee them. Czech Republic (now Czechia), Germany and France had nothing to lose after being awarded wild card entry spots.

Group A saw European champions Sweden win all three of their games, defeating Iran and Qatar, who joined them in the main round, as well as the USA, who were playing their first-ever games as a team together.

France opened their campaign in group B with an impressive victory over eventual gold medallists Croatia, 2-0 (19:17, 21:8), taking a further two wins, over Brazil and Togo, to move into the next round, along with the Croatians and Brazilians.

Jordan – the first-ever side from the Asian nation to play at an IHF Beach Handball World Championship – opened their account with a 2-0 (28:18, 12:20, SO 6:8) victory over Spain. This was followed up by a win against Greece to secure qualification through. The Czech side went into the consolation round despite an impressive 2-0 win over Jordan.

Group D saw Germany take three wins in their three matches, joined by Argentina and Ukraine in the main round, with Uruguay losing all three and going into the consolation round.

Despite winning all their preliminary round games, Sweden lost all three of their main round group I games, against Croatia, France and Brazil, to crash out at just the second stage. Brazil scraped into the quarter-finals in fourth place thanks to two wins – against Sweden and Qatar. They were joined by France, Iran and Croatia, who finished top, having won all three of their main round games, against Iran, Sweden and Qatar.

Spain also won all three of their main round games in group II – against Germany, Argentina and Ukraine – to top the table and move into the last eight, where they were joined by the same three teams, the initially-impressive Jordan team losing all three of their main round games, like Greece, to crash out of contention.

The quarter-finals saw Brazil's men defeat title-holders and Youth Olympic Games champions Spain 2-0, while Iran saw off Argentina in dramatic style, winning their shoot-out 6:4 after Argentina’s Giovanni Vicente Brunetta saw his ball heading into goal before taking a massive deflected bounce on the sand and going wide, leaving Arad Hosseini Gohari to smash home Iran's fourth shot to make it 8:4. Croatia beat Ukraine (2-0) and France saw off Germany 8:6 in a shoot-out to confirm the final four.

Croatia and France went to a shoot-out in the first semi-final, with the Croatians going ahead first and never looking back. At 4:2 up, Baptiste Dubois was whistled for travelling and Croatia kept scoring, a single point putting them 9:6 ahead with France only having one shot left – they would then know their opponents shortly, with Brazil coming from behind to eventually take a shoot-out win against Iran, 8:4.

In the ranking games, Togo secured a win in their final game, against the USA for 15/16 place to ensure all 16 teams recorded a victory in Heraklion and that the African side could finish their second, successive IHF Men's Youth Beach Handball World Championship with a win to their name. 

Iran beat France 2-0 (20:16, 19:18) in the bronze medal match with Arad Hosseini Gohari scoring the vital single point to podium, resulting in joyous scenes which ended with coach Mehdi Ghashghaeirad being thrown up and down in celebration by his players.

As expected, the final went to a shoot-out with Croatia taking down Brazil 9:6, after opening up a 4:0 lead.

The first period saw Stjepan Babic’s Croatia win 19:18, despite a last-second two-pointer from the South Americans, but they came back strongly in the second to take it to shots, going 12:4 up in the second 10 minutes. However, Croatia would not be denied and their young men would take the first gold for the country on the Heraklion sand, with their senior men repeating the feat just a few days later.

“This is my dream, this is what we were working for,” said Croatia’s Vigo Konforta moments after winning gold. “This is everything, we feel incredible. We made this together. We fought.”

Greece 2022 – IHF Men's Youth Beach Handball World Championship

Final Ranking
1. Croatia
2. Brazil
3. Iran
4. France
5. Argentina
6. Ukraine
7. Spain
8. Germany
9. Sweden
10. Qatar
11. Czechia
12. Jordan
13. Greece
14. Uruguay
15. Togo
16. United States of America

All-star Team
On the final day of competition, the All-star Team was selected by the IHF Beach Handball Working Group. The selection was based on performance throughout the championship.

Six national teams were represented among the individual positions, plus a seventh team that received the Fair Play Award. 

MVP: Lars Zelser, Germany
Best goalkeeper: Antonio Kranjcevic, Croatia
Best left wing: Eduardo Escobedo Romero, Spain
Best right wing: Luka Glavendekic, Croatia
Best specialist: Yalles Lara Caetano, Brazil
Best pivot: Ali Heidarian, Islamic Republic of Iran
Best defender: Adrien Oulieu, France
Top scorer: Lennart Liebeck, Germany – 143 points
Fair Play Award: Togo

What happened next: Some players stayed in Greece for the subsequent, senior, IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship, while the following year players and teams from Greece 2022 participated in their respective continental championships.
 
To take a look back at the debut, 2017 IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championships, click HERE.