On Australia's Gold Coast, the men’s and women’s teams from Australia and New Zealand played a two match series over two days on Friday, 26 February and Saturday, 27 February 2016 to determine which team will represent Oceania at the 2016 Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships taking place from 12 to 17 July in Budapest, Hungary. 

 

The Australian women comfortably won all four periods across the two matches. On Friday, they defeated New Zealand with 24:2 and 20:5 and Saturday did not hold any surprises with Australia winning 0:16 and 4:14. The New Zealanders are a young team gaining experience and looking to form a solid base for their future. Australia thus qualify for the Beach Handball World Championships, but in New Zealand they have an opponent which might make it difficult for them in the near future.

 

At the men’s competition, Australia was in the lead by one goal 12:11 after the first period of the first match but New Zealand regrouped in the second, taking the lead to win the period with 12:24. In the following shoot-out New Zealand could defeat Australia clearly 7:4. Match two on Saturday evening was tightly contested from the first whistle on, goal for goal, with Australia, again, being one goal in front 18:17 after the first period and then leading by three 11:8 after the second. New Zealand pushed them all the way, making it very exciting and keeping the spectators on the edge of their seats throughout the whole match. However, with Australia having won a total of 3 periods compared to New Zealand’s two, they are the team that qualified for the Beach Handball World Championships this summer.

 

The Oceania Beach Qualifiers were played in conjunction with the 2016 Australian Beach Handball Championships, held on Australia's Gold Coast between February 25 and 28. Thirty-one teams from Australia and New Zealand contested the Championships across Women's, Men's and Mixed divisions.