29 teams vie for glory at YAC 17 Beach Handball EURO 2019 in Poland

Stare Jablonki returns to centre stage of the international beach handball scene on Thursday (27 June), when the YAC 17 Beach Handball EURO 2019 throws off.

The four-day event with competitions for men and women takes place at the same venue in northern Poland which also hosted the ebt Finals a year ago.

The under-17 championships are like the appetizer for a main course, as the Beach Handball EURO 2019 for senior teams will be held on the same courts the following week, from 2-7 July.

Matches will be streamed live on ehfTV.com

On Thursday, a total of 29 youth teams - 15 in the men’s and 14 in the women’s event - are taking to the four sand courts in Stare Jablonki for the preliminary round, which in both competitions consists of four groups.

An overview of all 29 teams and the groups for the preliminary round can be found on the tournament website, beachhandballeuro2019.com, while the court plan can be downloaded here (PDF).

At least the matches from the main court will be streamed live on ehfTV.com and all scores can be followed on the dedicated beach handball liveticker.

The top-two teams from each group advance in the tournament, which follows a different format compared to previous editions. Instead of directly going into a knock-out phase with quarter-finals, a main round with two groups will be played this time.

The best two teams of these main-round groups will contest the semi-finals. The winners qualify for the finals on Sunday, with the women playing for the gold medal at 15:00 hrs and the men at 16:00 hrs.

Spain hope to repeat 2017 success

As the 2002 beach handball generation has not played a European or world championship before, it is hard to single out any favourites among the participating teams.

In the men’s event, Spain want to repeat the success from their team that won the YAC 17 Beach Handball EURO in Croatia as well as the youth world title in 2017, a year after they had also taken the European under-16 title. Spain will play Hungary, France and Slovakia in Group C.

Hosts Poland will meet Ukraine, Switzerland and Bulgaria in Group A. Germany hope to follow the path of the team that won the under-18 title in Montenegro when they face Portugal, Netherlands and Lithuania in Group B.

In the only three-team group, Croatia will be playing Russia and Romania.

Hungary among title candidates again

In the women’s event, Hungary are likely among the main title candidates again. In the 11-year history of YAC Beach Handball EUROs, Hungary have won all championships - except for the under-16 event in 2016 and the under-17 event in 2017, which were both won by Netherlands.

Hungary also won the inaugural Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship in 2017, beating their Dutch rivals in the final.

Hungary start the tournament in Group A and will face Croatia, hosts Poland and Slovakia, while Netherlands will be up against Ukraine and Lithuania in the three-team Group B.

Also, Germany headline Group C with Russia, France and Switzerland, while Portugal, Spain and Romania will fight in Group D for the main-rounds berths.