Women’s Group B: Poland, Uruguay, France, Chinese Taipei

Poland
The Polish women’s team will be looking forward to Kazan 2018 having achieved some excellent results and rankings in the two years since their 10th place finish at the last edition of the World Championship in Hungary, back in 2016.

Their debut appearance on the global stage, in 2012, also saw them finish 10th, but since Budapest 2016 particularly, beach handball in Poland has exploded in popularity thanks to the hard work of the Polish Handball Federation, who will hope for something extra to celebrate in their centenary year (1918-2018).

Numerous beach handball events are now taking place in the heart of cities across the country thanks to the PGNIG Polish Summer Superliga which has proved to be a big hit, gaining new players, coaches and fans of the sport and pushing those already involved to perform on a higher level. Added to this, the 2018 EBT Finals were held in Stare Jabłonki and next year the senior and junior Beach EUROs will be held at the same venue.

In June in Zagreb, Croatia, the Polish team finished third in their preliminary group at the 2017 EHF Women’s European Championship after beating Sweden and France 2-0. But they lost their next two matches, against Ukraine and Norway 2-0.

In the Main Round a 5:2 win in the shoot-out against Denmark saw them take the honours 2-1 thanks to an impressive 21 points from Ewa Nowicka, including the winning shot in the penalties. However, they were on the other end of a 2-1 penalty shoot-out, losing against world champions Spain. Kazan 2018 hosts Russia then beat them 2-0, before a shoot-out (7:6) win against Croatia – with Nowicka top-scoring on 14 points, backed up by Alicija Slezak with 11.

That was enough to go through to the quarter-finals and further penalty drama as they beat the Netherlands 2-1 (Nowicka top-scored and hit the winning penalty shot again) and then Denmark in the semi-finals 2-1, thanks to 21 points from Nowicka in regulation time and a 7:6 shoot-out victory.

With their ticket to Kazan 2018 firmly in their hands now, Poland faced an experienced Norwegian side in the final who won a tight first set 16:15 and then pulled away right at the end of the second set (19:16) to grab the championship – but the medal for the Polish team was their first-ever.

Unfortunately, on home sand in Wroclaw the following month, Poland crashed out at the quarter-final stage of the 2017 World Games, having lost to Brazil and Australia in the group stage and beating Chinese Taipei in their three games. In their quarter-final though they were well beaten by Spain (2-0). They did manage to secure fifth place with a 2-1 win over Tunisia and then 2-0 victory over Australia in the 5-8 Placement round.

Team Poland with national players took part in EBT Final this year in Stare Jablonki and finished in fourth place and since then they have been also training with Norway in Mielno, Poland ahead of Kazan.

Coach Marek Karpiński has been at the helm since 2017 and is extremely well-qualified academically as well as thoroughly-experienced in the sport – he also coached the national Polish indoor team (2000-2003).

Goalkeeper Magdalena Słota along with specialist Iwona Niedźwiedź started to play beach handball only this year (the former captain of the Polish national team who finished fourth twice at the IHF Women’s World Championship in Serbia 2013 and Denmark 2015) and along with pivot Paulina Sowa will be key for his team in Kazan.

Follow the Polish team through their official federation website, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

Uruguay
A silver medal gained on the sand of the USA back at the Pan American Beach Handball Championships saw the Uruguayans grab their place at Kazan 2018 as coach Gonzalo Peluffo will be hoping his key players Victoria Ramos (pivot) and Valentina Garcia (left), can improve on their 11th place finish at Budapest 2016.

The Uruguay women’s team have a long history at the IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship having appeared for the first time in 2006 where they finished ninth. A seventh place (2008) and sixth (2012) showed progression, but 2014 saw them drop down to eighth before that 11th place last time around.

Coach Peluffo was a handball player for 25 years, making numerous appearances for the national team and was coach of the Uruguayan men’s beach handball team in Rio, at the first-ever world championship, in 2004.

He took up the reins of the women’s team in 2012 and in the USA back in March his team defeated Mexico (2-0), Trinidad & Tobago (2-0) and Paraguay (2-0) to set up a quarter-final against Chile, which they won 2-0 again to grab their ticket for Kazan 2018.

A 2-0 win over the hosts in the semi-final saw a final date against the Brazilians but, the regional dominant force were too strong, winning 2-0.

You can follow the Uruguay team through their official federation website, Facebook, YouTube or Instagram.

France
One of indoor handball’s most successful nations in recent years make their debut at the IHF Beach Handball World Championships with their woman’s team qualifying through to Kazan 2018 thanks to being invited to take part after Africa failed to organise a continental qualification event and therefore lost its compulsory place.

After sending an inspection delegation led by former national team goalkeeper and 2003 IHF Women’s World Championship winner Valerie Nicolas to Budapest 2016 to assess the level of beach handball at the world championship stage, France reignited their beach handball programme with the women finishing seventh at the 2017 EHF European Beach Handball Championships in Zagreb, Croatia last June.

They took the seventh-place finish thanks to a 6:2 penalty shoot-out win against the Netherlands with Maud Eva Copy scoring the winning shot and finishing with 14 points in the game.

Beach handball and its derivative of ‘sandball’ in France has a long history in the European country, but as the national team looks for success in Russia, the game back home is growing with the second edition of the French ‘Oasis Beach Handball Tour; taking place from 25 July to 7 August.

Chinese Taipei
The small Asian nation of Chinese Taipei is making big waves in the world of beach handball. After appearing at their first-ever IHF World Championship at any level back at Brazil 2014, where they finished 10th, they followed it up with an impressive sixth-place finish at Budapest 2016 – and they could have finished even higher.

Preliminary Round wins over Poland (2-0), Uruguay (2-1) and Tunisia (2-0) were enough to move into the Main Round despite losing to Brazil and Norway, two of the world’s strongest women’s beach handball teams.

Three defeats followed though – against Spain (2-0), Italy (2-1) and Hungary (2-0), which meant a fifth-place game against Italy, but Wen-Lin Wang’s team were heavily beaten in both sets (23:16 and 26:12). Despite the loss, their finish was celebrated wildly.

The following summer, in 2017, Chinese Taipei could only win one game at the World Games in Poland, beating Tunisia in the 7/8 Placement Match after losing all their group games (vs Brazil, Australia and Poland), their quarter-final against Norway and 5-8 Placement Round semi-final against Australia (2-0).

To qualify for Kazan 2018, Chinese Taipei grabbed a bronze at the 2017 AHF Asian Beach Handball Championship in Pattaya, Thailand, held in May. In the round-robin tournament, Chinese Taipei lost to Vietnam (2-0) and Thailand (2-0) but beat China (2-0) to grab that ticket to Russia where they hope they will be able to improve further on the global stage again.