They arrived at the European Beach Handball Championship in Nazaré, Portugal without one single defeat in the past three years: the German women. They won the last three major tournaments: European champion in 2021, world champion and winner of the World Games in 2022. It’s an impressive winning streak, carefully built up by making beach handball important in the country.
By Walter Tempelman
The number one favorite for a new European title, you would say. But coach Alexander Novakovic tempers the expectations. “We were forced to make some different choices, because our indoor competition has not yet ended. Some players have obligations with their indoor team. So I wouldn’t just label us as the biggest favorite of all.”
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It clearly demonstrates the relationship between indoor handball and the other discipline, the one in the sand. The indoor sport is ‘the big one’, the little brother is played on the beach. “Yes, here in Europe that’s definitely the case, but in other places or regions in the world it’s not”, says the coach. “I see handball as one big sport with two great disciplines. One can benefit from the other, if we want to learn from each other. The athleticism and tactical thinking on the beach is for example very different than indoors. We have twenty minutes in which the players constantly have to make different decisions. I really hope that indoor coaches and players are eager to take a closer look at the beach.”
But the two variants are acting as family members. Sometimes they love each other (or just tolerate…) and sometimes they’re getting in each other’s way. The European Championship is now held earlier in the year, because the European Games in Poland are scheduled for next month. And beach handball is part of the program. In fact, there are qualifying places to earn at the current tournament in Nazaré. The best 8 of this European Championship qualify for that still relatively new continental multi-sport event.
Due to this shift, some countries are therefore having difficulty getting players present in Portugal, because they play at a high level indoors and are important in the decisive phase of that competition. “We knew about eight months ago that it might be a problem for some of our players. So we expanded the group at an early stage by adding new players. But even then, they only get better by playing real matches, getting real competition,” says Novakovic.
Stressful
In the first test – the opening game against France and the following match against Italy – the team passed with flying colours. “And I’m really proud of that”, says the smiling Novakovic. “Until two days before the European Championship, it was not entirely clear who would joint he team and who wouldn’t. That was quite a stressful few days and now we present ourselves like this! Hats off! It’s so hard to stay the best. And I’m certainly not saying that we’re the best right now, because there are six to eight countries that can all beat each other, but we managed to start this competition well.”