16 teams from across Pan America battled it out on the sand of Oceanside, California, USA, for the right to be crowned continental champions in the 2018 Pan American Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball Championships which finished yesterday (11 March).

 

Both Trinidad and Tobago teams debuted in the competition, which started on Thursday (8 March), but it was the returning Brazilians – who missed the 2016 edition – who made the biggest impression as their men’s and women’s teams dropped just one set between them in their total of 12 matches on their way to double gold – defeating Uruguay both times in their finals.

 

The Brazilian women were perfect in the USA, winning all six of their matches 2-0, beating the strong Uruguayans 2-0 in the final, even more impressive considering their opponents had not dropped a set going into the last match.

 

"It was perfect, we won all the sets and we consistently beat all the opponents, it could not have been better," said Brazilian women’s coach Marcio Magliano to the Brazilian Handball Confederation website. "The team played well both in attack and defence and it's hard to highlight one particular highlight – we were able to get a fantastic group of athletes together for this championship."

 

The men from Brazil also took a perfect record into their final but were made to fight for their gold medal as they eventually beat Uruguay 2-1 after winning a tense shoot out 5:2. The dramatic end to the final game of the tournament followed a strong second set win (24:6) after their South American rivals had taken the first set on a golden goal.

In the bronze medal matches there was joy for the home fans in California as the USA men took bronze, beating Argentina 2-0 (24:14) (17:14) while Paraguay grabbed third place in the women’s competition, eventually overcoming Mexico 2-1, winning 8:4 in the shoot-out, after Mexico had taken the second set on a golden goal 14:13 to salvage the game from 1-0 down after the South American side had easily won the first set 20:12.

 

There was also joy – and history – for Trinidad and Tobago too as their men’s team not only won their first-ever set in a Pan American championship, against Puerto Rico in the 7/8 Placement Match but took their first victory, winning 2-1 after a 6:4 shoot-out victory.

 

USA’s Andrew Donlin topped the men’s scoring charts with 91 points, while Paraguay’s Ana Acuna was the highest women’s point scorer, with 80.

 

The newly-expanded World Championship will now welcome Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico and Paraguay to the women’s competition, while Brazil, Uruguay, USA and Argentina will travel to Russia to compete in the men’s competition. The Pan American teams qualified now means 28 of the 32 teams for Kazan 2018 are known.

Photo: Charlie White/USA Team Handball