Now they are the record holder: The grandiose victories of both Brazilian teams underscore the dominance of the Pan-Americans at the V Beach Handball World Championships in the Oman. Statistics show that Brazil is leading the chart of the Gold medal winners while Croatia and Russia are following right behind. And also this time there is no exception. One of the reasons: The boys and girls from the sugarloaf-mountain were very well prepared. For more than 100 days the women’s team held a training camp; with two training sessions each day, with medical and physiotherapist support.  For comparison: Silver medallist Denmark prepared themselves 10 days for the Championship; the men’s team from the Ukraine for two weeks. Another reason: Both Brazilian teams have a lot of strong players. Four players were elected into the All Star Team. Patricia Scheppa won the award of the Most Valuable Player. In this shape the Brazilians are also a favourite for the World Games; held in Cali in summer 2013. But they must conserve their physical conditions: Fitness, speed and their joy in the game.

Beside the dominating Brazilians we saw other winners at the tournament. The boys from Ukraine acted with a lot of team spirit and on a high physical level. And with a lot of luck: The Ukraine reached the main round with a shoot out at the last match of the preliminary round against host Oman. The Europeans reached the semi-final with a shoot out against Egypt at the last match of the main round and they reached the final with a shootout against the strong Russians. But in the final the happiness was gone. So the East Europeans lost the most important match after shoot out. But silver is the first medal for the boys from the Black Sea at World Championships ever. Also the ladies from Uruguay and Australia were very satisfied. The team from Uruguay won against Croatia, Denmark and Norway. The girls from Australia won against Poland. It was the first victory for a team from down under in a match against a European team on an IHF tournament ever. So the Pan-Americans finished as 6^th, Australia on the 8^th rank. Bye the way: With their result already Australia qualified for the World Games next year. Uruguay has a big chance to get the place for the continent.

And what was the news among the court? The teams played for the first time at World Championships with a professional announcer, on an air-conditioned main court, with a permanent entertainment during the breaks. The show was supported permanently from the beautiful “Greek drops”, a famous cheerleading group from Greece. And the organizer was working with a professional venue producer. So the entertainment factor for spectators was as high as never before. But the organiser also arranged some news on the court. All referees were whistling for the first time by the help of a headset.