Twenty teams from across Australia competed in the Australian Beach Handball Championships at Scarborough beach in Perth, Western Australia (WA) between February 13-16. Categories were Open Men’s, Women’s and Mixed. Preliminary pool rounds were held on the Thursday and Friday, followed by finals on the Saturday and Sunday.
In Beach Handball a team needs to win both halves to win outright, otherwise, a sequenced penalty shoot-out determines the game-winner. Most of the games were very close and made for some very exciting handball – a huge credit to the development work going on in the States.
Men (8 teams in two pools)
- Gold: East Melbourne (Vic) def Tang (NSW) 2-0
- Bronze: WA Gold (WA) def NT Harbourside (NT/NSW/ACT) 2-0
Women (6 teams in 1 pool)
- Gold: Tang (NSW) def Melbourne BHC (Vic) 2-0
- Bronze: WA Foxes (WA) def SA Sharknados (SA) 2-0
Mixed (8 teams)
- Gold: Tang (NSW) def NT Harbourside (NT/NSW/ACT) 2-0
- Bronze: Monash (Vic) def WA Vipers (WA) 2-1
For more details on rankings and fixtures http://beachhandball.camandco.com/
And for more action photos from the event see http://www.facebook.com/handballaustraliamain
A very big thanks to Handball West (headed up by Denise Westhaeusler and Michael Bone) for organising the event at a great venue.
