South American representatives are making their mark at the XI IHF Women’s and Men’s Beach Handball World Champinonships China 2024. Argentina will play the final against Germany in the women’s division, something historic for Argentine handball. The following is a summary of the participation of the South American teams in the world event.
With a perfect Main Round, the Kamikazes reached the quarterfinals undefeated after beating China 2-0 (29:8, 29:8), the Philippines 2-0 (20:16, 23:12) and Portugal 2-0 (25:20, 22:18). As for Brazil, it lost its first match in the Main Round to Norway 1-2 (20:18, 20:23 SO 6:7) in a shoot-out, lost to the Netherlands 0-2 (28:24, 20:19), and also lost to Denmark in a penalty shoot-out 2-1 (14:16, 22:20 SO 9:6). With these results, Argentina and Brazil crossed paths in the quarterfinals.
The South American classic was present on Pingtan Island, the women’s teams of Argentina and Brazil were playing for everything to advance to the semifinals. In a balanced start to the match, the Brazilians found spaces in the Argentine defense and managed to take the first set by the minimum. In the second, the girls coached by Leticia Brunati, ordered their game and imposed themselves with authority against their South American counterparts, winning the set 26-18. Agustina Mirotta of Argentina was in charge of making history and giving the victory to the Kamikazes 13-12. In addition, they managed to secure their participation in the World Games to be held in China in 2025.
After the victory that allowed them to be in the top 4, the Argentines faced the Netherlands in one of the semifinals. The match, which was full of emotions and high level handball, culminated with a shoot out victory for Argentina, making history in Beach Handball in that country, qualifying for the first time to the final of a world championship. The team coached by Leticia Brunati will play against Germany for the first place in the tournament.
Brazil, on the other hand, faced Portugal in the afternoon to define the 5th to 8th places and in a dramatic match they lost in shoot out and the result was 1-2 (28:24, 20:23 SO 10:12) in favor of the European team. On their last day of competition, the team coached by Vinicius Carlos de Oliveira will go for 7th place.
On the other hand, in the men’s competition, after losing in straight sets to Germany in their first match in the Main Round 0-2 (14:21 and 12:18), the Argentine team did not give up and played the last two games that would give them the chance to advance to the quarterfinals of the world competition. In a balanced match, defined in both sets by golden goal, the team coached by Sebastian Ferraro defeated Qatar in shoot out 2-1 (20:18, 16:17 SO 11:10).
In the afternoon, the Argentines experienced another great victory, this time against the United States 2-1 (18:19, 26:24 SO 9:8). In a hard-fought match, Argentina lost the first set, but then in the second half managed to impose their game and force the match to shoot out, winning the pass to the quarterfinals where they faced Denmark.
The Argentines lost in the quarterfinals to Denmark. With 16-21 in the first set and 17-18 in the second, they were unable to force the match to a shoot out and ended up losing 2-0 to the European giants. In the afternoon, it was the turn to face Spain to define the 5th to 8th places. Unfortunately, the Argentine national team lost again 0-2 (20:25, 20:23) and will face Hungary for the 7th place in the World Cup on its last day of competition.
Brazil, meanwhile, won its first match in the Main Round against Oman 2-0 (20:14 and 20:4), then lost to Denmark in shoot out 0-2 (14:18, 25:24 SO 9:8) and then defeated Hungary 2-0 (19:18, 16:14) in the last match of the main round to advance to the quarterfinals, where it faced Portugal.
Another dramatic match was played by the team coached by Antonio Guerra in Chinese arenas, as in an evenly matched game the green and yellow team was unable to beat Portugal and lost in a shoot out. After a hard-fought first set, the Europeans were more effective in the end, winning 15-17. In the second set, the Brazilians imposed their game and took control of the match, winning the second set 19-14 and forcing the match to a shoot out. Finally, they ended up losing 8-10 in the penalty shootout.
With this result, the Brazilians faced Hungary to define the 5th to 8th places. Known rival, the Brazilian team took the match 2- (22:17, 22:23 SO 17:16) and thus the Brazilians will go in search of the 5th place in the World Cup.
Finally, the Uruguayan men’s team played the Placement Round, defeated China 2-1 (20:23, 26:18 SO 5:4) and also won against Australia 2-0 (28:16, 24:20) and Puerto Rico 2-0 (24:22, 22:8) in straight sets. With these results, they faced Oman and China for the definition of the 9th to 16th places, obtaining again a positive balance in both matches, beating Oman 2-1 (16:19, 18:16 SO 7:6) and China 2-0 (26:20, 26:20), which allows them to dispute the 9th place in the world championship.
Photos: IHF
By Camila Miranda Torres.
