After 12 matches across two sessions on the first matchday of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the men’s competition is extremely tough with four shoot-outs taking place and all to play for going into the second matchday.

2018 Youth Olympic Games – Buenos Aires

Matchday 1: Men’s Preliminary Round – Monday 8 October

- Host nation defeat Croatia in shoot-out, end day with two wins
- Current European and world U17 champions Spain taken to brink by Thailand, but finish with perfect record
- Uruguay, Venezuela, Paraguay and Mauritius end opening day without a win
- Italy impress with two wins, best defence and attack

For the match schedules and results click HEREhttps://www.buenosaires2018.com/results/en/beach-handball/event-schedule-men.htm?lng=en .

Men’s Preliminary Round: Group A
Like the women’s U17 world champions Hungary, the men of Spain are the strongest team in their competition, having not only taken gold in Mauritius last summer at the 2017 IHF Men’s U17 Beach Handball World Championship, but also at the EHF EURO U17, and like the Hungarians, want to add the Olympic title to complete their collection.

But Thailand had other ideas in their opening match of Buenos Aires as they took the Europeans all the way to the second round of a shoot-out, before eventually losing 10:8, with Spain’s goalkeeper Guillermo Garcia-Cabanas Carques later revealing to IHF.info that “it was a bit scary.”

Spain could have won in normal time had they not hit the post, but in tournaments, any win is a good win and they moved on to dispatch Uruguay in the last game 2:0 to end with two wins from two, but not top spot in the group – that honour goes to Hungary, who won both of their games 2:0, against Venezuela and Chinese Taipei to secure four points and a place above Spain thanks to having not lost a period.

Continental rivals Thailand and Chinese Taipei are in third and fourth place respectively, on two points each after they both beat South American sides – Thailand defeating Venezuela 2:0 and Taipei dispatching Uruguay on a shoot-out, 2:1.

Venezuela can count themselves unlucky as they prop up the group in bottom (sixth) place behind Uruguay, with both teams without any points. The Venezuelans lost three of their four periods today by just two points each and will be looking to get off the mark tomorrow.

Results
TPE vs URU 2:1 (19:21, 21:19, SO 7:6)
VEN vs HUN 0:2 (22:24, 16:18)
ESP vs THA 2:1 (16:10, 22:23, SO 10:8)
THA vs VEN 2:0 (24:17, 22:20)
HUN vs TPE 2:0 (16:14, 22:20)
URU vs ESP 0:2 (8:20, 12:22)

Men’s Preliminary Round: Group B
Host nation Argentina ensured that the packed and vociferous crowd, plus the gathered media, were made to sweat in their opening game in the morning against the strong Croatians, as they firstly squeezed an opening period win, then lost the second, to set up a shootout – eventually won 9:4 thanks to Croatia missing three of their shots.

Ahead of their second test of the day - the South American clash between Paraguay and Argentina - Youth Olympic Games ‘Athlete Role Model’ and current IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Champion - and beach handball legend - Gil Pires had participated in the warm-up and he witnessed the home side calm their army of supporters as they won easily 2:0.

Pivot and left winger Nahuel Baptista scored 13 points in total in Argentina's two wins, which put them onto four points, ending the day behind leaders Italy who did not drop any periods in their two wins, against Paraguay and Mauritius.

The European side will face tougher tests in Buenos Aires, but they were impressive in both of their 2:0 wins as they represented the birthplace of beach handball on the greatest sporting stage of all. Specialist Davide Notarangelo had the best day of all players, scoring 10 points against Paraguay and nine against Mauritius, to end with 19, while teammate Christian Mitterrutzner scored 10 to top-score against the African nation, who ended the day in rock bottom place of the group.

In between Italy and Argentina at the top and Mauritius in sixth, lie Portugal and Croatia in third and fourth, both on two points, with Croatia beating the Portuguese in their second shoot-out of the day after Portugal had handed Mauritius their first defeat earlier.

Paraguay were well beaten in their two games against Italy and Argentina, but lie in fifth spot thanks to their better points, compared to Mauritius.

Results
ARG vs CRO 2:1 (17:16, 17:21, SO 9:4)
ITA vs PAR 2:0 (23:12, 21:18)
POR vs MRI 2:0 (28:2, 29:16)
PAR vs ARG 0:2 (13:17, 12:21)
CRO vs POR 2:1 (14:10, 17:20, SO 6:4)
MRI vs ITA 0:2 (7:28, 13:30)