Capitol Beach in Lingayen is the location to be for fans of beach sport as the inaugural Philippine Beach Games takes place on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 April. The north-western municipality will be home to a variety of sand-based sports including beach volleyball, ultimate frisbee, beach flag football and many more including beach handball.

 

As part of the Games, the first-ever Philippine Beach Handball Open will take place with teams from across the world invited to join in as the Philippine Handball Federation (PHF) looks to continue popularising the sport in the south east Asian country.

 

Last November, the southern city of Dumaguete hosted their first-ever international beach competition – the debut edition of the South East Asia Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball Championships – in the country with Vietnam and Thailand facing the hosts in a competition recognised by the Asian Handball Federation.

 

Late next year, the 2019 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) will also be hosted by the Philippines and with the sport programme yet to be decided, the PHF are hoping that the 2018 Open can help push the Olympic sport onto the SEA Games schedule.

 

“We want to promote and develop beach handball to establish it in key areas around the country,” said Head Coach of the Philippine Handball Federation, Jana Franquelli. “The aim is to keep popularising the sport, so more people are playing it – and we hope to be included in the SEA Games later next year which will shine even more of a light on our sport.

 

“The Philippine Beach Games is part of the traditional ‘Pistay Dayat Festival’ (Sea Festival) in Pangasinan province and the 2018 Philippine Beach Handball Open is making its debut,” she continued. “We are really happy to have two foreign teams as they will provide more excitement and more competition for the local players. 

 

“We hope to host it well, learn from it and plan for bigger tournaments in the coming years.”

 

The 2018 Philippine Beach Handball Open will feature nine teams in the men’s and women’s competitions (17 years old and above) with teams from the Philippines joined by an Indonesian men’s team from Banten on the island of Java, and Japanese women’s team Kunoichi.

 

The competition will start at 07:15 hrs (local time) on Saturday 28 April, before finishing with the awarding ceremony at 17:00hrs the following day, Sunday 29 April. Both competitions will be played in a round-robin league format with the team finishing top in each competition crowned champions.

 

TEAMS

Men’s Competition: Loyola, Baras, Banten (INA), Antipolo, Metro

Women’s Competition: Metro, Dagupan, Kunoichi (JPN), St. Clare

 

For more information about beach handball in the Philippines, visit the PHF Facebook page HERE.