Binder: “Great atmosphere among the teams!”

Anna-Caroline Binder was born with one hand missing at the end of her left arm. But this does not stop her from being a successful Beach Handball player. Since she was 10 years old, she has been playing handball, and for the last four years also Beach Handball. Equipped with extraordinary talent, she made it to the Swiss national team.

eurohandball.com: When did you start to play handball?

Anna-Caroline Binder: I just finished my 18th season. I come from a small town in the north of Switzerland, Bad Zurzach, where everybody plays handball. At the age of ten every player needed to learn how to pass and throw the ball, so I learned my own technique from the very beginning. Right from the start I have always been one of the better ones. Currently I play in the fourth Swiss league, as my job as a teacher takes up a lot of my time.

eurohandball.com: How did you get into Beach Handball?

Anna-Caroline Binder: There is an active Beach Handball movement in Switzerland, and my team decided to join in. It all started with fun tournaments, but in the meantime my team “BHT Sandhufe” plays in the Swiss Beach Handball Masters Tour. There are 12-13 tournaments to participate in and to collect points. The best eight teams qualify for the final tournament, the Mastersfinal CH.

eurohandball.com: How are your chances to qualify this season?

Anna-Caroline Binder: Pretty good I would say. We are title defenders, last year we won the Mastersfinal CH. The system in our federation is that the winners of the national title automatically become the national team for one year. So team Switzerland here is identical to BHT Sandhufe.

eurohandball.com: Do you – parallel to indoor – also have specific Beach Handball training?

Anna-Caroline Binder: Of course, since we won the title last August, and knew we were going to the 2011 European Beach Handball Championships, we have been training Beach Handball once a week. It is a 45 minutes drive to Basel, where we can use the Indoor Sand hall. I believe that more such halls are planned to be constructed in Switzerland, which is good. But the development is also difficult, as many people see Beach Soccer as a priority, so it is sometimes difficult to get training time. We have now built an outdoor sand court near Bad Zurtzach, which is perfect for summer.

eurohandball.com: How happy are you with the Swiss performance at this tournament?

Anna-Caroline Binder: It is super – which might sound funny if you have a look at our results. We were not too successful, but it has been a wonderful tournament. We have learned a lot from our opponents, who play on a very high level, obviously better than the other teams in the Swiss Masters Tour. Everything we learn here, we bring back and introduce to Swiss Beach Handball, which is a great step for development. In addition to that we all enjoy the fantastic atmosphere between all teams – we all cheer on each other, everybody seems happy and relaxed, and all of that in the framework of an international event. We love it!

eurohandball.com: Are you satisfied with your personal performance?

Anna-Caroline Binder: Difficult to say, in indoor handball I am the playmaker on middle back position, where I steer the game-play witch clever passing. At this tournament, I am used as a defence specialist and am hardly playing in attack. But I think I performed very well. Whenever I came to play in attack, I was only used on the wing. Against Croatia, who are the strongest team I have ever played against, I managed to score a pirouette goal. That was a proud moment for me. I am also one of our shooters in crucial shoot-outs.

eurohandball.com: So no bad feelings despite your results?

Anna-Caroline Binder: Not at all. Beach Handball is such an attractive sport. It brings so much joy to all of us, the sport, the sand, the sunny weather. This is just great!

Final Day

On Saturday 09 July 2011 the final matches are played. The playing schedule is as follows:

11:00 hrs: Women’s Placement Match 5/6
12:00 hrs: Men’s Placement Match 5/6
13:00 hrs: Women’s Placement Match 3/4
14:00 hrs: Men’s Placement Match 3/4
17:30 hrs: Women’s Final
18:30 hrs: Men’s Final

Live Stream

The 2011 European Beach Handball Championships is broadcast on a free-of-charge live web stream. It features live coverage of all matches from Court 1. The live web stream can be viewed at:
www.ebhc2011.com/live-stream/

In order to embed the Live Stream on your website please use the following code:
<iframe src="http://streaming.hr/modules/iframes/ebhc2011/ebhc-hrs-2011.html" width="593" height="353" scrolling="no" border="0" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="livestreamiframe"></iframe>

Further information

Find all results of the Women’s 2011 European Beach Handball Championship here.

Find photos and more info on the Official Event Website
http://www.ebhc2011.com/