The German national beach handball team of men won the European Championship title for the first time.
The team of national coach Marten Franke won 2-1 in the shoot-out in the final of Alanya against Spain. For the German Handball Association (DHB), it is the greatest success in the men’s area so far. On the way to the final, the DHB men had turned off world champion Croatia.
Women win bronze
The German women were not quite as successful. After two titles in past title fights, this time was already in the semi -finals against Norway.
“We didn’t play a bad game”said national coach Alexander Novakovic after the 0-2 according to Handball-world.de. “We have found a lot of solutions, but can state that the goalkeeper had the clear day today compared to our launchers. We have to acknowledge that.”
In the small final, the German women were victorious. Against the Netherlands, the players of national coach Alexander Novakovic also took third place after shoot-out.
Efforts around Olympic participation
DHB sports director Ingo Meckes was happy about one “Great Sunday with two shoot-out wins and two EM medals!”
Beach handball has not yet been Olympic. However, the DHB and numerous athletes have been committed to taking up the spectacular sand variant in the summer games for years. After the cancellation for Los Angeles 2028, Kretzschmar and Co. hope that the sport will be integrated into the Olympic program for the summer games in Brisbane in 2032.