The debut edition of the IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship seems like a century ago, but Mauritius was just five years ago, held in 2017, with Spain taking the honours on the African sand. 

They then took gold at the debut edition of the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the following year and ended as Men’s 17 EHF Beach Handball EURO runners-up last year with the players who will be at the second edition of the World Championship, in Greece.

Spain therefore enter the 2022 IHF Men's Youth Beach Handball World Championship in Heraklion, on the island of Crete, as strong favourites.

However, we will have to wait until the afternoon of the opening day (Tuesday 14 June) to see them in action against Jordan (15:00 EEST) at the Karteros Beach Sports Center, which was opened in a special ceremony on Monday 13 June.

“We are very excited about this World Championship, [especially] after last year's European championship, where we won silver,” said Spain coach Juan Antonio Vázquez.

“Expectations are very high and Spain's objective is, at least, to reach the semi-finals. It won’t be easy, as the rivals already know this group of players and take us as a reference. Every game is going to demand maximum effort from us.

“It hasn't been an easy year in terms of preparation, but this motivates both the players and the coaching staff. We are very happy with the group we have formed and we hope to achieve our objective.”

A trio of mouthwatering games open the men’s championship with Sweden taking on Qatar, the all-South American clash between Argentina and Uruguay and the USA playing Islamic Republic of Iran.

The pick of the remaining opening session games sees the host nation open their campaign, against Czech Republic (12:50 EEST) ahead of playing Jordan at 20:10 EEST after the conclusion of the opening ceremony, which starts at 19:30 EEST.

Out of the total of 15 men’s games played on the opening day, the all-Asian clash between Qatar and Iran will be one to watch after the Iranians overcame the continental powerhouse at the Asian Championships earlier this year – can Qatar, featuring the legendary goalkeeper Danijel Saric’s son, Filip in goal, get revenge?

Due to their expected late arrival, Brazil will not play until 18:20 EEST, where they will take on France and show the world if their youth team is as strong as their senior side after they missed both Mauritius 2017 and Buenos Aires 2018.

In the time since Mauritius 2017, the world has changed a lot, most recently due to the COVID pandemic and it was with that thought that Chairman of the IHF Beach Handball Working Group, Giampiero Masi, asked for a minute’s silence at the pre-championship technical meeting, featuring delegations of all team in Crete, to remember all those relatives, friends and beach handball family who are sadly no longer with us.

After the pause, an applause broke out amongst everyone present and thoughts turned to action at the newly-inaugurated Karteros Beach Sports Center, which will host 16 teams across six days of competition featuring 58 matches.

Over half of the total of 24 preliminary group men’s games, all of which will be streamed live on the IHF YouTube channel, will have been played after the first day – 15 – and most nations by then will have an idea or not if their medal dreams are still alive.