With the IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships just around the corner, set to be played between 21 and 26 June in Heraklion, Greece, the appetizer for the world flagship competition took place last weekend in Sicily, Italy, as the ebt Finals 2022 provided two new champions.

After AM Team Almeria and HEI Beach handball struck gold in the women’s and men’s competitions, respectively, in the last season, it was time for new champions, as Danish side Team Blue Bee and Portuguese team LX50 Handball cruised to the gold medals on the sandy beaches of Isola delle Femmine.

13 women’s teams and 16 men’s teams took to the sand over the last four days in Sicily, with high-octane games, impressive goals and hard-fought battles, until the deciding games took place on Sunday, 12 June.

In the women’s competition, it was not plain sailing for the winners, Team Blue Bee – The Danish Beachhandball Dream – which were drawn into Group A. Winning three games and losing another one, the Danish team still clinched the first place, tied on points with two teams – Dutch side Westside Amsterdam and Spanish outfit Triana Xabia BMP Sevilla – but with an advantage in the set difference, +5, rather than +4 and +3.

In Group B, the reigning champions, AM Team Almeria, swept their opponents, winning three games, while Portuguese side GRD Leça – Love Tiles won Group C, with three wins out of three games.

GRD Leça – Love Tiles and Team Blue Bee collided in group I of the main round, with the Danish side clinching the first place with three wins in three games, which saw them progress to the semi-finals.

With a 2-0 set win against hosts Blue Team – 22:21 and 15:12 – the Danish side secured a place in the final, where they met GRD Leça – Love Tiles, who secured their own 2-0 win against the reigning champions AM Team Almeria – 27:26 and 23:18.

The final looked set to be a battle between GRD Leça – Love Tiles’ Rita Alves and Cecilie Lindgaard from Team Blue Bee, who both scored 20 points, but it was the Danish outfit that clinched the gold medal, taking a win in straight sets on Sunday, 22:16 and 25:22.

AM Team Almeria needed to be satisfied with bronze after a 2-0 win against hosts Blue Team, 20:14 and 21:18.

With an outstanding ebt Finals 2022, Rita Alves secured the top scorer award with 165 points, 37 more than Westside Amsterdam’s Manon Zijlmans, while the third place in the top scorer standings was secured by Team Blue Bee’s Line Gyldenlove Kristensen.

LX50 Handball write history for Portugal

The men’s tournament had a hugely surprising result, as LX50 Handball clinched the gold medal, despite a shaky start. With the 16 teams divided into four groups of four teams each, every game mattered, especially for the Portuguese side that finished second in group C, after a loss against reigning champions HEI Beach Handball.

Only three sides went undefeated in the group phase, as HEI Beach Handball were joined by Portuguese side GRD Leça – Spar and Spanish team Movex Handbol Platja Granollers.

In the main round, LX50 Handball also made it by the skin of their teeth, with a 2-1 win (18:19, 23:18, 10:6) against Team Tchatcheur, a 2-0 win (25:24, 20:14) against Camelot Handball Tilburg, until conceding a 0-2 loss (16:18, 18:19) in the Portuguese derby against GRD Leça – Spar.

However, from that moment on, LX50 Handball did not put a foot wrong in the knockout phases of the competition, winning the next three games in straight sets on their way to the title. 

With a 2-0 win against Movex Handbol Platja Granollers (22:16, 27:20), LX50 went into the semi-final, but the big news was the loss of HEI Beach Handball at the hands of Camelot Handball Tilburg, 1-2 (12:24, 16:27, 6:8), as the Croatian reigning champions crashed out from the competition.

Tilburg did not boast the same output in the semi-final against LX50 Handball, who qualified for the final in straight sets, 2:0 (19:18 and 25:14), as the other semi-final had dramatic accents.

Trying to set up an all-Portuguese final, GRD Leça – Spar lost the first set against CBMP Ciudad de Malaga, 14:18, before mounting a nail-biting comeback, 19:18 and 9:8, to take a 2-1win and progress to the final.

Learning from their loss from Friday, LX50 Handball played a superb game against their Portuguese counterparts, as Matheus Victor, Rhuan Marchette, Pedro Pinto and Aldrin Oliveira scored 10 points each, driving their side to a 2-0 (20:14, 22:13) win.

It was a historic win for LX50, who became the first Portuguese side to clinch the ebt Finals trophy, after a superb tournament, where they dropped two games, but lost only two sets in the last five matches.

The third place went to CBMP Ciudad de Malaga, as Spanish teams secured the bronze medal both in the men’s and women’s tournaments.

Tilburg’s Thomas Robben – 132 points – was the top scorer of the competition, followed by Granollers’ Carles Asensio Cambra with 127 points and BMP Algeciras’ Gonzalo Cervera Perez de Vargas with 117 points.

For more information on the European beach Tour and the ebt Finals, visit eurohandball.com.

Photo: kolektiff / Uros Hocevar