The IHF Beach Trophy has continued on the African continent as after Tunisia, Angola and South Africa were hosts to a Phase 1 Course of the IHF Beach Trophy. The course in Angola took place between 21 and 24 November and the course in South Africa was held from 26 to 29 November.

IHF Beach Handball Working Group Member Mr Burak Tezcan (TUR) was in charge of the course and he presented different aspects of beach handball including the philosophy of the discipline, offensive and defensive tactics as well as the rules of the game in general. Besides the theoretical lessons, the participants both in Angola and South Africa had the possibility of practical sessions as well. In Luanda, the famous Ilha de Luanda and in Cape Town, Camps Bay hosted the practical sessions with the participation of beach handball players from different age groups.

The President of Angola Handball Federation, Mr Pedro Godinho mentioned that beach handball will be a very important step for Angola and he continued: “Angola has a long tradition of indoor handball. We have a lot of talented players both in women’s and men’s teams. Beach handball is a new sport in Angola but we are very ambitious to be successful. We want to be the strongest beach handball country in Africa. We have all necessary infrastructure for this discipline: beautiful beaches, mild climate and talented players. The IHF Trophy for Beach Handball is a very important opportunity to start and develop Beach Handball in Angola.”

The course in South Africa took place in Cape Town. This is the second time a course for beach handball is staged in this country after the successful course in Durban in 2013. After the course in 2013, South Africa started to organize national teams and a couple of national tournaments. But this time the targets are bigger. The President of the South African Handball Federation, Mrs Ruth Saunders gave some information after the course in Cape Town: “Beach handball is a great opportunity for South Africa for competing on international level. We started already beach handball in South Africa in 2013 with the help of IHF. Now we are working very hard for the IHF Trophy for Beach Handball and the Youth Olympic Games in 2018. I am sure that South Africa will be one of the most successful African countries in beach handball…”

The IHF Beach Trophy is the latest project of the International Handball Federation and it will take place in three different phases. In the first phase, each participating federation will receive beach handball material necessary to construct a court, as well as beach handballs and they organize a course on which an IHF expert will have the possibility to establish the basis for the future beach handball development in the country. The second phase involves staging of national championships as well as camps for the national teams which will also be supervised by an IHF expert in order to ensure the quality work in each of the member federations. The last phase will be an international competition modelled on the already existing IHF Trophy in indoor handball. In the beginning, the focus of the IHF Beach Trophy will be put on three areas that have the natural conditions and infrastructure for beach handball development (Oceania, the Caribbean and Africa) with a possibility to be further expanded to different continents and national federations.