All 16 teams will be action on Friday (8 August) afternoon as the afternoon/early evening session of preliminary action takes place in the men’s and women’s beach handball competitions of The World Games Chengdu 2025.

To watch the games live or follow beach handball at The World Games, click HERE.

ANOC World Beach Games champions face off against European champions in second day of women’s action

European champions Spain take on ANOC World Beach Games champions Denmark in the opening round of games on day two of Chengdu 2025, but it is the Spanish who are looking to get off the mark having lost their opening game against The World Games and World Championship title-holders Germany on Thursday.

Spain were the last delegation to arrive in Chengdu a few days after Germany and were not able to execute their high-level game in their 2-0 (19:14, 19:18) loss, missing a number of in-flights against one of the strongest defences on show in China.

Denmark, with five debutants in their squad (Freja Gandrup Ernst, Freja Hauge Hansen, Freja Sølling Fager, Alberte Toppel and Sofie Hjernø Jørgensen), overcame Asian champions Vietnam 2-0 (18:16, 18:17) in their opener, doing just enough to open with a win.

“We have so many new players in this tournament, just five from the European Championships so we must use these matches to play together and see what's happening,” said Denmark coach Morten Holmen to ihf.info. “You only have to win by one point in each set, and that was enough. We missed too many shots overall, but it was a good game from the girls and at the end we came back and win 2-0 that's important for us.

“We just take one match at a time. Next, we have Spain and Germany, so we must see what's happening, and then hopefully we can bring this team together before the quarter-finals. We had no preparation before this, so it has been very difficult – just four trainings with the team in China, so it is one day at a time, one match at a time, and now we have two points. No one can take that away from us.”

Debutants Vietnam will take heart from that performance but their second-day clash against Germany will be a big test for the side. 

For the Germans, they will look to extend their unbeaten The World Games run stretching back to their last 10 games played. On 23 July 2005, they beat Japan in the 5-8 placement round, before going on to beat Russia to claim fifth place. 

After not appearing at the 2009, 2013 and 2017 events, they returned to action at The World Games Birmingham 2022 and won all seven of their games. Add their opening day victory against Spain at Chengdu 2025 and they are now up to double figures.

In 2005, Germany’s Emma Pilz was not even born – the specialist celebrated her 16th birthday just last month – but coach Alexander Novakovic was full of praise for his new player who only joined the squad for The World Games.

“It's incredible what she is doing with her young age; without fear, without respect,” said Novakovic to ihf.info about Pilz. “She's going and going and going and has really, really good effectiveness on the right side. The most beautiful thing about coaching Emma is that you say something to her, and then in the next attack, she is doing exactly that. She's absolutely in the right place here with us and maybe we can write some history in the future in this tournament with Emma.”

2024 IHF Women’s World Championship silver medallists Argentina saw off Portugal with a professional, focused display – 2-0 (16:15, 13:10) – and they will go up against Croatia, who they beat at the global event last year in Pingtan, China 2-0 in the preliminary group.

It will be interesting to see how the Croatians respond after losing to hosts China 2-1 (13:20, 16:14, SO 8:6) on the opening day, with the home side looking to continue their form with a win against the Portuguese who they lost to 2-0 12 months ago on home sand.

“It's very important, definitely, for us to win the first game, because our team are very young. We're all young blood, so it's particularly important for us to win to help us to build up,” said China coach Xi Shang to ihf.info.

“We prepared a lot for the Croatia game, but we are also preparing for the Youth Olympic Games next year. Here, it's not about winning or losing, it's about the chance to enhance our confidence in the team to participate in these kind of championships. What I want at The World Games is that we will try our best to achieve the best scores.”

Can men’s title-holders bounce back in eternal beach handball derby?

Four times Brazil have met Croatia in The World Games, four times Brazil have won and four times it has been Croatia winning the first set but losing the game, via shoot-out.

On Friday (8 August) could that change? The Europeans will hope so, after losing their opener against Germany via shoot-out (1-2, 10:22, 27:20, SO 6:10), while Brazil won theirs, via shoot-out against Portugal 2-1, 18:16, 12:14, SO 13:12).

Over 20 years ago, on 22 July 2005 in Duisburg, Germany, Brazil defeated Croatia 2-1 (16:24, 14:13, SO 12:10) and they then faced each other across the next three events, with the Brazilians winning all three: 2009 in the semi-final in Kaohsiung 2-1 (20:22, 19:17, SO 11:10), again in the semi-final in 2013, 2-1 (20:21, 20:17, SO 5:2) and then last time, at Wroclaw 2017 in the gold medal match, 2-1 (22:28, 24:18, SO 9:8).

In total, the two teams have won 10 The World Games medals between them out of a possible 18 (six editions, with gold, silver and bronze each) – including four golds, one silver and five bronzes.

Tunisia play Denmark – keen to avenge their opening day loss against Spain 1-2 (14:17, 28:14, SO 8:9), while European Champions Germany take on Portugal, German head coach Marten Franke looking to fine tune his side, despite that key opening day victory against the Croatians.

“We have to work on playing two good sets in the match,” said Franke to ihf.info. “Our shoot-out [against Croatia] was really great and winning the first match is always very important. It's never easy against anyone and especially against Croatia, but we are happy for the moment.”

Spain face hosts China, looking for their first win, but the Europeans are full of positivity after that tough victory against Denmark.

“This competition is fantastic,” said Spain captain Adria Ortola to ihf.info after their opening day win overseen by coach Miguel Cristobal Rueda, who is leading the team in place of regular coach Juan Antonio Vazquez who is currently in the pre-season period with his club team, Trops Malaga.

“We are so focused in this competition because we didn’t get a medal for many years. All the team, all the young guys, are focused on the competition and motivated. Everything is in The World Games is pretty cool.”

To watch the games live or follow beach handball at The World Games, click HERE.

The World Games Chengdu 2025 – Beach Handball: Day 2 schedule
(All times local, CST)

Friday 8 August 

Preliminary Group

Women’s Competition
1530    VIE vs GER, ESP vs DEN
1710    POR vs CHN, CRO vs ARG

Men’s Competition
1620    ESP vs CHN, TUN vs DEN
1800    BRA vs CRO, GER vs POR