Whilst the beauty of the Pacific island nation of the Cook Islands is unparalleled, the sheer remoteness of the country makes getting anywhere particularly hard.

But when they arrive in Tunisia later this month for the 2025 IHF Youth Men’s Beach Handball World Championship, the Cook Islands men’s youth beach handball team will become the first-ever team from their country to appear at an IHF World Championship.

Financial issues meant Brazil missed the debut edition of the IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championships back in 2017, with the team pulling out of the competition late on.

But the then South and Central America champions arrived for the second edition, Greece 2022, fully-prepared and ended up with a silver.

However, it was an inauspicious start, as they relied on a win against Togo to qualify through to the main round after losses against France and Croatia.

In a shock upset, Argentina’s women will not be competing at the 2025 IHF Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship, and, therefore, the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, after missing out on qualification at the 2024 South and Central American Handball Confederation (SCAHC) Youth (U17) Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball Championships held in Chile last December.