Dakar 2026: “We want to be champions here” – China’s goal in Senegal clear

The opening day of the women’s beach handball competition at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games was an eventful one for the People’s Republic of China.

Both of their games went to shoot-outs and both were against European heavyweights in current world champions Spain, and 2018 Youth Olympic Games silver medallists Croatia.

China found themselves 4:0 up against Spain in the first few minutes, goalkeeper Congrui LIU putting off the Spanish attack early on, while right back Yiyi WANG made history as the first-ever beach handball scorer in a Youth Olympic Games for China – and the first points-scorer in the event at Dakar 2026.

Despite doing their best to draw level, China could not catch Spain in the first set as the European side forced a turnover and block from two late attacks from the Asian side, to take an 18:16 victory. The second set was even until the last two minutes with Xi ZHAO scoring to take it to shots. 

They went to a second round after China had a chance to seal a first round win, but a Shiqi YANG missed spin shot saw Spain take the two points.

And it would repeat later against Croatia, with China leading throughout the first set (20:14) before the European side took it to shots with a tight 20:19 second set victory, Lucija KIRIN scoring with 17 seconds remaining to put her side ahead by three and move it to a shoot-out, which they won 7:4.

 

“We thought we could win and were full of self-confidence going into the shoot-out,” said China’s Yiyi WANG to IHF.info about beating Croatia. “The first reason is that we have good goalkeepers, and, secondly, our shooting success rate is so high. We are training very hard every day; our players fight on court for every goal and we are a team: we work together and fight together.

“The Olympic Games stage is very high for us young athletes and can be very useful for our future,” she added. “I have been training hard every day and know more and more about beach handball. In fact, I am growing up with the sport and I want to become a very good beach handball athlete.”

Six of the China squad hail from the Shandong province, with the entire delegation of 10 all playing the indoor discipline for China’s national youth team as well.

Goalkeeper Congrui LIU hails from Shandong and found the sport there thanks to a local, big event and now finds herself as an Olympic beach handball athlete in Senegal.

“I’m from Shandong province and discovered beach handball there because of the Shandong Beach Handball Championship. I knew a little bit about it and then learned more and more. I was then selected for the Youth Olympic Games and now I am here,” she said after the Croatia victory to IHF.info.

 

“Now, I believe I am an Olympian, but before it was unbelievable to think that I would be standing on an Olympic court and fighting for my country. Although our team have only trained together for three months, we all work very hard individually and as a team and our coach works very hard.

“At this level, the transition is so fast,” she added about the level of Olympic Games beach handball. “At the beginning we didn’t score and made some mistakes so the game became tough, but in the end, we won. It was very exciting. I am so proud of how we played this game. If we play well, we can beat every opponent.”

And for WANG, the goal for China at Dakar 2026 is clear.

“We want to become champions here,” she concludes.