Champions remain undefeated
2015 women’s champions Multichem Szentendrei are undefeated after two days of competition at the EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup, thanks to two victories on Friday. The Hungarian side served Polish team BHT GRU JUKO Piotrkow Trybunalski their first loss in the preliminary round, then beat DHG Odense from Denmark.
Szentendrei therefore remain on top of Group A with the maximum number of points, ahead of Dutch team Westside on six, and Detono Zagreb and Piotrkow Trybunalski on four.
With a total of three Group A games left in the preliminary round, Szentendrei and Westside are safely through to the quarter-finals, while Zagreb and Piotrkow Trybunalski have to hope Swiss Team Schwan, currently on two points, will not catch them.
In Group B, Brüder Ismaning, C.BM Playa Algeciras, OS GORDOS LABMINHO / Clube Naval Leca and SPORT CLUB Senec - Cannabis Energy Drink all finished the second day of preliminary games with six points. As their other group rivals, Hønefoss and London Great Dane Handball Club, remain on zero with only one match remaining in this phase, the four places in the quarter-finals are already secured by the teams on six points.
In the men’s competition, Spanish side Club BM Playa Ciudad de Malaga lead Group A alongside Polish team BHT Auto Forum Petra Plock. Both are on eight points following four straight wins. The head-to-head match between the two on Saturday morning, which will decide first place on the table, is set to be an exciting encounter.
Portuguese team OS Gordos / Labminho - Clube Naval de Leca have collected four points, while Swedish team Kävlinge HK and Team Italia are on two. As OS Gordos beat both Kävlinge and Team Italia in their direct encounters, neither side can overtake the Portuguese team in third. OS Gordos are therefore through to the quarter-finals, while Kävlinge and Team Italia will fight for the final ticket to the next round in their head-to-head match on Saturday.
Men’s competition Group B was the last to wrap up on Friday, and 2014 and 2015 winners "Ekaterinodar" Krasnodar stayed on top of the table with eight points after another two victories – beating Pinturas Andalucía BM Playa Sevilla and Rodby HK.
After opening their campaign with two straight wins, BM Playa Sevilla endured two defeats on Friday – first against Krasnodar, then in a shoot-out versus Hiekka Hauskaa. The result was crucial for Dutch side Hauskaa, as they moved up to four points alongside BM Playa Sevilla on the table, and knocked Swiss team BHV Wasserschloss (two points), out of the top four.
Orosházi FKSE Hír-Sat are currently second in the group with six points, following two wins on Friday, versus Wasserschloss and Rodby HK. Danish team Rodby stay at the bottom of the table with zero points, and are out of the race for the quarter-finals.
Follow the EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup live and on social media
Over the four days of the tournament, the EHF offers all beach handball fans plenty of opportunities to follow the event.
All matches of Court 1 and Court 2 will be streamed live on ehfTV starting from Saturday at 13:30, when the quarter-finals throw off.
This coverage will be supplemented by a number of highlight and best-of clips from the event, which will also be available on YouTube as well as on the beach handball Facebook page.
All matches can be followed with the dedicated beach handball ticker and the respective statistics are available for all men's and all women's teams on the respective event pages.
Furthermore there will be continuous updates via Instagram stories on the EHF Beach Handball account and on Snapchat (ehf_live).
TEXT:
Courtney Gahan