The host nation fans will be hoping their ‘Les Aigles de Carthage’ (The Eagles of Carthage) national team can pull off a shock on the sand in Hammamet and make it all the way through to the knockout stages.

Thanks to the lottery of a good draw, as hosts, Tunisia were able to choose which preliminary group they wanted to be in and there was only one choice to be made with group C including debutants Mexico and the Cook Islands, plus second-timers Thailand – the easiest, on paper at least.

Thailand’s men enter their 2025 IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship preliminary group as the most experienced nation.

Alongside Mexico, Cook Islands and host nation Tunisia, they are the only nation in the quartet to have played in a qualification tournament for Tunisia 2025 and solitary one to have appeared in a previous edition of the youth world championship.

This generation of Spanish men’s beach handball players known as ‘Los Hispanos’, come to North Africa as YAC 16 EURO 2024 silver medallists, but on the back of teams who have come before then and medalled on the global stage.

After making their global beach handball debut at the 2022 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship in Greece, Puerto Rico returned with both a men’s and women’s team for the 2024 IHF Beach Handball World Championships, held in China last year.

Now, in 2025, the youth can get involved too, as the men’s U17 team – nominated by their continental federation – become the first side from the country to appear at an IHF Youth Beach Handball World Championship.

Oman’s men’s senior team have been regular participants in the IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championships, appearing at its debut in 2004 and going on to appear in a total of seven events out of 10 in the three decades since it started.

But for their youth side, Tunisia 2025 is a debut appearance and one which is full of hope, after they replaced Qatar who grabbed the last qualification spot at the third edition of the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) Men’s Youth Asian Beach Handball Championships in Thailand last October.

When Mexico’s men throw-off their 2025 IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship campaign they will be making handball history for their nation.

Depending on how you view life, you can look at Kenya’s preliminary group at Tunisia 2025 either as a glass half full or as a glass half empty situation.

On one hand, they are in a group with two of the medallists of the YAC EURO 16, held last year in Varna, Bulgaria: title-winners Hungary and the third-placed Germany.

It is not often that debutants enter a championship as favourites, but as current European champions, Hungary’s men are just that.

Last year at the YAC 16 EURO in Bulgaria, the Hungarians lost just one of their nine matches on their way to gold – losing to Spain in the main round. Their eight wins came against Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden, Croatia, Portugal, Czechia, Croatia and Spain, but this time, in the final, which they won 15:14 via shoot-out, Marko Forgacs scoring the winning one.

A bronze medal at the YAC16 EURO in Bulgaria last year ensured that the German men booked not only their spot at the 2025 IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship in Tunisia, but a shot at a place for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal next year.

And while dreams of their first Olympic Games are present, immediate thoughts turn to what this age group can do at Tunisia 2025 where they will face debutants Kenya and Tanzania, plus reigning European champions Hungary in the preliminary stage.