Sunday 17 July

Croatia went one step better than in 2014 as they beat rivals Brazil to finish as champions, their first title since 2008.

Winning gold back then was Croatian goalkeeper Luka Bumbak who returned to the Croatian side for 2016 and his golden touch worked again as, even though he did not have a save to make, his Croatian team defended as a unit, restricting Brazil to just 15 first half points as top scorer Josip Sandrik scored 10 of his 16 total points.

The second half saw a resurgent Brazil work hard to pull in front but Croatia would not let them and stayed in touch all the way through to 10:10. The game, and championship, was evenly poised but Croatia had other ideas.

They went 14:10 up and then 18:14 up before Brazil came back again but David Henigman made a save which was quickly followed by Zvonimir Dikic slotting home for one point to make it a two-score game in the final seconds and send Croatia to beach handball heaven in front of 100s of fans who made the short journey from the border.