This week – 29 to 30 July – will see the second stage of the 2025 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour (BHGT) touch down in the northern Spanish town of Laredo.
Four nations and two continents will take to the Spanish with the men’s and women’s teams of host nation Spain joined by those from neighbouring Portugal as well as Poland and the United States of America.
For all four Spain and Portugal teams it represents their last competitive action ahead of their appearances at The World Games Chengdu 2025 which gets underway in August.
All eight teams in Laredo have numerous BHGT stage appearances behind them and rematches of previous stages are littered throughout the matches in Spain. For more information on their previous meetings, visit HERE.
The stage of will also be a big homecoming celebration for the Spanish women as it will be the first time for the senior women will be at home since being crowned European champions earlier this month, the same as their women’s youth team, who added the European title this month to their IHF Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship title, won in June in Tunisia – with many of the youth players expected to be in Laredo as part of the Spanish Beach Handball Championship which follows on from the BHGT (31 July to 3 August). The championship is the final part of the RFEBM’s ‘Arena Beach Tour’, with all games streamed live on the RFEBM YouTube Channel.
Spain have named strong men’s and women’s squads for their home stage and are keen to showcase their talents and extend their season.
“It’s a new competition, a new opportunity to continue competing at the highest level and also a new chance to qualify for the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour – Finals stage,” said Spain men’s coach Juan Antonio Vazquez to rfebm.com.
“We face it with great excitement and determination, after our excellent result at the European Championship, to show that it wasn’t just a one-off success, but rather that our goal is to sustain good results. Playing at home, we will try to secure qualification for the finals stage, something the men’s team has yet to achieve.
“We face quite strong teams that have performed well in European tournaments, such as Poland and Portugal, and against a national team that has been improving by leaps and bounds in recent years, like the United States,” he added.
“This promises to be a very exciting, interesting, and appealing competition for those who come to watch, and a perfect prelude to the Spanish Beach Handball Championship, which will serve as the grand finale of the Spanish beach handball season. So, with that excitement and desire, we’ll try to qualify for the final phase and also use it as preparation for The World Games in China.”
For women’s coach Juan Pablo Morillo, he is also well aware of the importance of the stage for the global spectacular next month.
“We approach this competition with a clear goal: to prepare for The World Games,” he said to rfebm.com. “These matches should help us further strengthen our style of play and improve in areas where we still have room for growth. We’re aware of the level and the parity we’ll be facing, and we know we must improve certain aspects of our game.
“These rest days between competitions have allowed us to thoroughly analyse both the overall team performance and the individual performance of each player. Playing at home gives us an extra boost of motivation, and we’d love to show our best version to win this competition and give our fans something to enjoy.”
Earlier this month, neighbouring Portugal named their squads too as they look to test themselves and secure a ticket for the 2025 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour – Finals in Brazil later this year.
“We face this new competition with a completely rejuvenated team that will fight to reach the final, which will qualify use for the BHGT Finals in Brazil in November,” said Portugal women’s coach Agustin Collado Rodriguez to fpa.pt.
“The competition won’t be easy, and we’ll have to adapt quickly. The United States of America are a team that has been working very well and growing over the past few years. Spain are recent European champions, and finally, Poland, who showed great performance at the European Championship. The youth of our squad must instil in us the hunger and desire to achieve new successes.”
“The IHF Beach Handball Global Tour, as always, features top-tier teams,” added Pedro Serrano, the Portugal men’s national team coach, to fpa.pt. “On the first day, we’ll face Spain, the current European runner-up, and Poland, who we already played against in the last European Championship, and the two-set result was very close. Finally, in the group stage, we’ll face the United States of America, whom we haven’t had the opportunity to see in competition, but they’re a team that’s growing year after year.”
USA welcome new coaching staff, return to action
In addition to the US women announcing their squad last month – the first under new coach Lyndon Suvanto – the men have revealed their team.
Laredo is the USA’s first official competition since the 2024 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship and their squad features five athletes who were part of the 13th-placed side in China last year.
Poland also recently named their men’s squads.
All BHGT S2 games will be streamed live and free on the IHF Competitions YouTube channel HERE.
Match Schedule
(all times local)
Tuesday 29 July – Day 1
Preliminary round
Men’s competition
1000 Poland vs United States of America
1200 Spain vs Portugal
1700 Portugal vs Poland
1900 United States of America vs Spain
Women’s competition
1100 United States of America vs Portugal
1300 Poland vs Spain
1800 Poland vs United States of America
2000 Spain vs Portugal
Wednesday 30 July – Day 2
Preliminary round
Men’s competition
1000 Portugal vs United States of America
1200 Spain vs Poland
Women’s competition
1100 Poland vs Portugal
1300 Spain vs United States of America
Finals
Men’s competition
1700 Bronze medal match
1900 Final
Women’s competition
1800 Bronze medal match
2000 Final
About the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour
The IHF Beach Handball Global Tour was launched at the 2022 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships in Greece and debuted in Gdansk, Poland, with Croatia winning the men’s tournament and Spain taking the top spot in the women’s tournament.
The following year, in 2023, the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour visited Brazil, Tunisia and Poland before the Finals Stage was held in Qatar with Qatar’s men and Brazil’s women taking the overall titles.
The 2024 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour was held in Brazil, Spain and finals, again in Qatar, where Brazil won both the men’s and women’s events.
2025 represents the fourth edition of the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour, with Stage 1 taking place in Hammamet, Tunisia, won by Spain’s women and Croatia’ men’s teams in June. Stage 2 will be played in Laredo, Spain in July, with Stage 3 – Finals taking place in João Pessoa, Brazil in November.
In a senior IHF Beach Handball World Championship or The World Games year, the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour Team consists of three stages, with non-event years reverting back to four stages. This year, The World Games will take place in August, in the People’s Republic of China.