Last year in Bulgaria at the YAC 16 EURO, Netherlands’ won gold, defeating France 2-0 in the final to become European champions.

Under their motto: ‘One team, One dream’, the Dutch have continued their winning streak, taking three wins in a row at Tunisia 2025 to make it through to the main round with maximum points and win 11 games straight in the European and world championships.

IHF.info caught up with captain Liz Elsinga for a brief chat after her side had recorded their final win of the preliminary stage, against Germany (2-0, 21:20, 21:18), which followed 2-0 victories over China and Kenya.

IHF.info: How are you feeling after your third win in the preliminary group to top it and take maximum points into the main round without dropping a set – although Germany did make you work right at the end of the first set when they nearly won with their final shot, but it was after the whistle had ended the opening 10 minutes…

Liz Elsinga: It was really important for our confidence, for ourselves (to hang on against Germany). I just thought: run, run, run at the end of that set.

Overall, I feel really good. Before we came here, we never thought…we never had an expectation of how it would go. Now, we see it went really good, so we're very happy.

IHF.info: Your supporters were very loud throughout the game and you danced with them at the end on court as well on the beach and in the sea. What do they mean to you?

Liz Elsinga: It gives us a lot of energy and more will to play. It's very, very nice and it really hypes us up giving us energy, a lot of energy. My family is here, plus my grandmother and grandmother.

IHF.info: You are captain for your side, what does that mean to you?

Liz Elsinga: It’s a very big pleasure for me and the girls in the team are listening to me very good.

IHF.info: You said to us before Tunisia 2025 that it was “cool” to play against team from three different continents in your preliminary group – Asia, Africa and Europe – and that “this is what you want at a world championship”, what have you noticed so far about the differences?

Liz Elsinga: The difference between the teams in Europe and the teams from Africa is really big, the teams in Africa play really physically, so it's a whole different game. You need to take risks; sometimes you need to jump fully. You need to think in a different way, because the defenders from Africa are a little physical.

IHF.info: The Netherlands’ women’s youth team have won silver both times at the IHF Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship, in 2017 and 2022. Are you aware of that and does it make any difference to you and your team to try and go one better here?

Liz Elsinga: We're not really thinking about it. The focus is on ourselves. So not really, it doesn't really mean anything.

IHF.info: What is your goal here at Tunisia 2025?

Liz Elsinga: The goal is the gold medal. We’re going to do our best for that.