2018 Beach Handball World Championships: day 1
The Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball Championships started with 32 preliminary round matches at the courts of the Kazan Beach Sports Centre on Day 1. The matches turned out to be breathtaking and sensational, for instance, Sweden men’s side entered the tournament with a win, first in the history of the world championships.
The competitions began with three matches to be played at the same time. The debutants – women’s team of Vietnam – decently opposed the Norwegians, but lost two sets. In the men’s competition, the Danes overcame Team Oman with the same score, and Team Qatar was stronger than the Australians.
The Danish women’s squad stopped Team Mexico, scoring 28 points in the second period. The start of the tournament was unexpectedly challenging for the current world title holders in the men’s event. The Croats snatched the victory over Uruguay only in the shootout. The debutants – Vietnam men’s and USA women’s teams – were whitewashed by Spain and Thailand respectively.
The Russian women’s powerhouse was to enter the World Championships with a match against the major favourite, Team Brazil. The Russians gave fight to the South Americans, however, the Brazilian girls’ experience got the better after all. The opponents managed to retain their advantage.
After the match Head Coach Vitaliy Volynchenko confessed that the handball players had been nervous. “We failed to keep our nerves under control in the kickoff match against the tournament’s favourite and strong contender. There were some positive moments in the game, but we made several mistakes which are due to be studied. The tournament has just begun, and weak points should be corrected,” the coach underlined.
The Russian men’s side took on the debutants of the World Championships, Team Sweden. The first set was won by the host team, while the second one was lost, so was the shootout.
Women’s Team Greece nearly stirred a sensation by winning the first set over the Spanish – the current world champions – by the double score. Then Spain led in the second period, in the shootout and match overall. In the men’s competition, Argentina needed a shootout to defeat Team Iran, as well.
The four-time world champions, Team Brazil, experienced no difficulty to finish the match with USA as a winner, earning about 10 points in each set. The host team of the previous world championships – Team Hungary - got the upper hand over the men’s side of New Zealand, one more debutant of the competitions. The female handball players of Paraguay and Chinese Taipei appeared to be luckier than their opponents in the shootout, defeating Australia and Uruguay respectively.
The women’s side of Poland confidently competed against France. In the men’s competition, Oman and Qatar claimed their second victories: the former defeated Australia in the shootout, the latter whitewashed the Danes. The women’s teams from Vietnam and Mexico won no set on Day 1 of their inaugural World Championships. The Asian team lost to Denmark in the second match, and the South American team could not challenge Team Norway.
The winners over the Russian women’s powerhouse continued their triumphant success in the preliminary round by a more confident win over Team USA. The men’s side from Croatia and Hungary whitewashed Vietnam and Argentina almost simultaneously, while Iran had to struggle against Uruguay – they celebrated the victory only in the shootout.
New Zealand men’s side just made fans fall for them by expressively performing a haka, traditional war dance, ahead of each match. This added emotions to the competitions, but was no help to the players: the handball players from New Zealand lost to Spain in their second match of the tournament. In the concurrent encounter the Swedes were amazing again. The debutants took one set over the four-time world champions from Brazil, lost the second period, but earned a win in the shootout. The Greek women’s team managed to bounce back after the defeat against Spain, by outplaying Australia in the shootout.
In the women’s competition, the shootout decided the outcome of France vs Uruguay match, too. The French girls won the first period, then lost the second one and took a one-point lead in the shootout. The Russians came out victorious in their second match of the tournament. Three or four minutes of acute struggle in each period were enough to whitewash Thailand.
The men’s match Russia vs USA was acknowledged to be the most dramatic game of Day 1. The tie score was followed by the shootout. Igor Neklyudov was the first to back down, failing to score. The Americans could have had the victory in case of a goal, but the goalkeeper of Team Russia Anton Zabolitskiy stopped Andres Espinosa’s hit. Alexander Brown could not net a goal, either. Luckily Neklyudov managed to score this time and got the first victory to the host team. In the last matches of Day 1 the women’s powerhouses of Spain and Poland beat out Team Paraguay and Team Chinese Taipei respectively.