The draws for the men’s and women’s beach handball competitions of The World Games 2025 have been made today (Monday 7 July) at the International Handball Federation (IHF) headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.

The World Games 2025 (TWG 2025) will take place in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China, from 7 to 17 August, with beach handball competitions running from 7 to 12 August. The draw took place exactly one month before games throw-off and was made by Hristo Boskoski, responsible for beach handball in the IHF Office.

Draw information

The men’s and women’s competitions at Chengdu 2025 will feature eight teams in each competition drawn into two preliminary groups of four teams each.

Teams were drawn from four pots, with seedings based on their rankings at the 2024 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships. As hosts, China had the right to choose the group they will compete in.

The women’s TWG 2025 competition draw was made first, with Croatia first out of the pot. The 2009 silver medallists were drawn into group B, with Asian champions Vietnam following, drawn into group A.

2017 bronze medallists Spain were then drawn into group A, with Portugal moving into group B. World Championship and The World Games title-holders Germany were out of the pot next, drawn into group A, with The World Games bronze medallists Argentina drawn into group B.

At this point, the draw paused for the Chinese Handball Association to choose which group they wanted to be in and they chose group B, meaning that Denmark moved into group A.

In the men’s draw, three-time The World Games gold medallists Brazil (2009, 2013, 2017) were first out of the bowl and drawn in group A, with debutants Tunisia moving into group B. Germany, who finished fourth in 2005, were then drawn into group A, with 2001 and 2005 silver medallists Spain drawn into group B.

Reigning The World Games and IHF World Championship champions Croatia were drawn into group A, where they will renew their long-term rivalry with Brazil.

Denmark, who Croatia beat in the final of the 2024 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship in China last year, were then drawn into group B, joined by the hosts themselves, who made the decision to be in the group which features three continents. To conclude the draw, Portugal were then drawn into group A.

The draw can be watched again on the IHF YouTube channel HERE.

The World Games 2025 Chengdu: Beach Handball – preliminary group draw result

Women’s competition

Group A
Vietnam (VIE)
Spain (ESP)
Germany (GER) 
Denmark (DEN)

Group B
Croatia (CRO) 
Portugal (POR) 
Argentina (ARG)
People’s Republic of China (CHN)

Men’s competition

Group A
Brazil (BRA) 
Germany (GER)
Croatia (CRO)
Portugal (POR)

Group B
Tunisia (TUN)
Spain (ESP)
Denmark (DEN)
People’s Republic of China (CHN)

For more information about how the teams qualified, visit HERE.

About The World Games

The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the IWGA, organised with the support of the International Olympic Committee.
 
Chengdu 2025 will be the 12th edition of The World Games, the most recent being held in Birmingham, USA, last July, with 3,600 athletes from 34 sports and 100 countries taking part.

Beach handball has been part of The World Games since it was introduced as a demonstration/invitational sport in Japan in 2001. It followed in Germany (2005) and Chinese Taipei (2009), before becoming a full sport at the 2013 edition in Colombia and then continuing in Poland (2017), before the USA (2022), where Croatia (men) and Germany (women) won the beach handball titles.

The 12th edition of The World Games will take place from 7 to 17 August 2025 in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China with Beach Handball one of over 30 sporting disciplines on the event programme. 

For further information, visit www.theworldgames.org.