The 2018 IHF Men's and Women's Beach Handball World Championship has started today in Kazan, Russia and we speak to the players and coaches involved throughout the 32 games today with the emphasis on those teams making their first-ever appearance at the senior global level.
Day 1: Quotes of the Day - Tuesday 24 JulyPresident of the Olympic Committee of Russia – Stanislav Pozdnyakov (RUS) at the Official Opening Ceremony about host city Kazan and the possibility of beach handball appearing in the Olympic Games:
“Kazan is acknowledged around the world as professional, organised sports city and everyone who comes here feels the hospitality.
“This year, for the first time ever, beach handball will be at the Youth Olympic Games and I would like to wish this beautiful sport to become a fully-fledged member of the Olympic Movement.”
Paraguay women's coach Jose Ignacio VELOSO (PAR) on his country not only making their senior world championship debut, but marking it with an 8:4 shootout win, over Australia, 2:1 (12:13) (11:10):
“The attitude and motivation of our players changed a lot between the first and second sets. In the second set we then started scoring the goals which we couldn’t score in the first set, plus we knew that we had to win this set to reach the shootout.
"Maybe in the first set we were a little bit worried about our own stuff and focussed too much on that, and that’s why the first set escaped us, but we turned it around."
France women's coach Valerie NICOLAS (FRA) on her thoughts after their first game, where they lost 2:0 (21:10) (18:15) against Poland, and the tournament as a whole:
"It was the first game for the French team in the world championship and we lost 2-0, but it was quite OK as we tried a lot of good things. Yes, we made some mistakes, but we are here to learn.
"Of course, we want to win, but we are looking for our team to play well, and play increasingly better match after match, and if we can win, we will try and do this.
"It’s important for us to be here as maybe one day, not tomorrow, but after tomorrow, we can be also one of the teams who can take gold, silver or bronze. Maybe we can do that, but for the moment, we are here to learn."
Max BROOKES (NZL) on New Zealand making their debut at an IHF Men's Beach Handball World Championship, losing 2:0 against Hungary, and what they can achieve in Kazan:
"We know we have a lot of potential and from here we can go a long way. We showed this against Hungary, who came fourth at the last world championship.
"To keep them under 20 points in the first period and get within 10 points in the second half shows this. Hopefully we can get into the main round and then see what happens from there – anything can happen."
Trinh Ngoc LUC (VIE) on her country appearing at a beach handball world championship for the very first time, against Norway:
"I am very proud, firstly, to attend this world championship and it is unbelievable for us to be here - it's very cool. Norway were a very strong team but in the second period we did really well although they were stronger in the end."
Vietnam women's coach Ngon HUYNH (VIE) on his team coming close to leading Norway in the second period before losing 2-0, and what it means for his country, and for him, personally, to be at their first-ever world championship:
"I am very sorry about some of the jobs we didn't do, but Norway have more experience at this level than we do. We are very, very happy to be here at our first world championship, I am very proud of all my players and I cannot put into words what I am feeling as a coach."
Claudia MACIAS HERMOSILLO (MEX) on Mexico's first appearance at an IHF Beach Handball World Championship where they lost to Denmark in a match where she scored their first-ever points:
"We are super happy to be here, this is my first world championship but my second international competition, so we are really happy to be able to represent Mexico here and we are really grateful to the people who helped us get here.
"We travelled for two days to get here – I know that this is not an excuse but I am sure in our next match we will do better. Against Denmark, it was just our first match.
"When I had the chance to shoot I thought well I have to make it, I was very moved and felt a lot of emotions when I did it but we all made it because we are team and we will evolve as a team during the competition."
Please credit IHF.info if using the quotes.