Campaign Summary
The Squads (as below), Coached by Timothy Rayner, represented New Zealand in Coolangatta at the Oceania Championships with historic results for both sides. The Women’s side beat Australia for the first time in an international match, but just fell short in the other two games, eventually settling for 2nd. The Men took Aussie the distance and in a thrilling penalty shootout beat the Australian side to take out first place. This is the first time that a NZ side has qualified for the World Championships by right.
The NZHF wishes to thank Handball Australia for hosting the event.
After some intense preparation both in New Zealand and in Croatia, the Men then travelled to Crete to compete in the 2022 World Beach Handball Championships.
The Men mad history and clocked up New Zealand’s first ever senior level handball victory at a major international tournament with a W at the World Championships in Crete, narrowly missing out on a top 12 finish in a penalty shoot-out with the USA, and then backing up their earlier success with another W over the African continental champions Egypt to finish a very creditable 14th.
The World Games in Alabama was a more exclusive 8 team event where we weren’t able to get over the line with another victory, albeit still finishing 7th after Denmark weren’t able to make it over. In Alabama we arguably put in some of the most head-turning performances ever by a NZ handball team competing overseas, with a highlight of the trip being coming within a whisker of taking beach handball’s traditional powerhouse Brazil to penalties.
The team wishes to thank all their supporters who without there contributions and sacrifices trips like this would not be possible.
2022 Team SelectioN
The New Zealand Handball Federation announced the 2022 Selected Teams for both Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball as shown below;
