Beach handball battle gets underway at Champions Cup 2025

For the fourth consecutive year, the Portuguese island of Porto Santo hosts the best European beach handball clubs. On the first day of action at the Champions Cup 2025, each team played two matches of the preliminary round, with the objective of getting off to a winning start.

MEN'S COMPETITION

• Only four teams remain unbeaten after day one: GRD Leça – Spar, 12 Monkeys Köln BHC, Ligue Nouvelle Aquitaine Handball and Rødby Beach Boys
• The defending champions, GRD Leça – Spar, were convincing at the start of the tournament, having secured two wins, and are currently top of group A
• The biggest surprise so far has been the French team, Ligue Nouvelle Aquitaine Handball, who stunned one of the strong contenders, Aarhus Beach, in the opening match with a score of 2:0 (28:18, 24:22); they added another win against VRT Lemar to keep the momentum rolling
• The star-studded squad of HÍR-SAT BHC, featuring experienced players such as Patrik Vizes, András John and Norbert Gyene, bounced back from their loss to the 2023 champions Rødby, by convincingly beating BHC Dubrava
• Aarhus Beach saw a strong performance from 2024 top scorer Jakob Magne Merrild, who finished the day at the top of the leaderboard; Merrild amassed an impressive 48 points in the first two matches

WOMEN'S COMPETITION

• Five teams still boast perfect records: Red Velvet BHC Aqvital, The Danish Beachhandball Dream, Fundación Fomento y Deporte CBMP Ciudad de Málaga, GRD Leça - Love Tiles and OVB Beach Girls BHC 
• The Danish BH Dream, back-to-back reigning champions, started their campaign to defend their title with two wins against London GD and Ligue Nouvelle Aquitaine Handball
• The race for the trophy is expected to remain wide open until the very end; neither the 2024 silver medallists, CATS Team Almeria, nor the bronze medallists, Black Lake Beach, are competing in Porto Santo
• Daniela Mendes was GRD Leça's hero in the nail-biting shootout against Copenhagen, ensuring that the Portuguese contenders maintained their perfect record
• Things are not looking promising for the British teams, London GD and Olympia Beach Handball, as well as for Copaca-Bâlerina, Beach Unicorns Hannover and Copenhagen Beach, who are all at zero points after day one
• Dominika Kodajová (Olympia Beach Handball) is currently leading the women’s scoring charts, having already netted 46 points

The competition resumes on Friday, 17 October, at 10:00 CEST with the remaining preliminary round matches, while Friday afternoon will see the first main round games. The full schedule for the women's competition is available here, and the schedule for the men’s competition can be found here. 

All the matches are available to watch live on EHFTV, while live scores and updates of all the matches can be reached here.

Photos © kolektiff