Nine Countries Set to Participate in Elite Competition That is Fast Paced and Spectator Friendly
Oceanside CA— Men and women athletes from sixteen teams and representing nine countries across the Americas will grace Oceanside Harbor beach on March 6-11, 2018 for the Pan American Beach Handball Championships. The bi-annual competition is a qualifier for the World Beach Handball Championships and promises spectators a thrilling glimpse of one of today’s fastest growing beach sports.
The USA Men are the current Pan American Champions and will be defending their gold medal win. The top four teams from each division will qualify to compete at the June 2018 World Championships in Kazan, Russia on behalf of their country and Pan America. Teams competing in Oceanside will represent USA, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay. The competition schedule will be posted on the beach handball website at www.teamusabeachhandball.com.
“Oceanside is excited to add beach handball to its growing line-up of beach sporting events, which already includes top-notch surf competitions and beach soccer,” said Leslee Gaul, CEO of Visit Oceanside. “The men and women competing in the Pan American Beach Handball Championships are among the best in the sport, so we can expect the experience to be an exciting one for both players and spectators.”
Beach Handball is one of the quickest growing beach sports in the world – fast paced, high scoring, spectator friendly. The game is the “sand” version of the Olympic sport of Team Handball, played with teams of four and two action packed sets of 10 minutes each. The USA Beach Handball Program was founded in Southern California in late 2015 and the women’s team relocated to the Hermosa Beach training site a year later. USA Beach Handball is a discipline of USA Team Handball located in Colorado Springs, CO.
“This is the sport of the future in beach communities here in SoCal and across the country, and the United States is poised to be a leader in the Americas,” said Dennis Berkholtz, USABH Director. “We are honored to be able to host these games with our exceptional community partners including Visit Oceanside and San Diego Exploratory Foundation who are committed to promoting vibrant, healthy communities and sports lifestyles.”
Visit Oceanside (www.visitoceanside.org) is the official tourism marketing organization in Oceanside, California, promoting travel to the city for both leisure and group visitors and operating one of the state’s official California Welcome Centers. San Diego Exploratory Foundation (www.sdexploratoryfoundation.org) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization working to promote San Diego as the hub of sports and active lifestyle sports.