There were scenes of jubilation on day one for Bulgaria at the Under-17 EHF Beach Handball EURO as the host nation celebrated a victory as the tournament threw off on Thursday.

The Bulgarian women’s side overcame Greece in a shootout to start the competition in style with Melia Spasova top scoring with 11 points in a rollercoaster victory for the hosts.

Although the team could not repeat the feat in their second match against Ukraine – going down 22:5, 30:16 – the young Bulgarians can take heart from their strong opening performance.

Elsewhere in the women’s competition as the action on the Black Sea coast began, reigning youth champions Spain secured two victories without dropping a set, with wins over Ukraine and Greece.

It was also a strong start for Hungary. The silver medallists of the previous beach younger age category event in 2019 won both of their opening matches, firstly beating Croatia and then seeing off France.

Favourites falter in the early stages

In the men’s competition, 2019 winners Croatia got off to a slow start, losing in a shootout to Poland. The Poles took the first set 17:12 before the Croatians won the second 21:14. However, the Polish team held their nerve to win 12:11 in the tightest of shootouts.

Having lost their opening match, the pressure was on in their second fixture, but Croatia recorded a 2:0 win over Romania.

It was also not such a great start for the silver medallists of two years ago, Hungary, who lost their opening two matches – losing in straight sets to Ukraine before being beaten by Sweden in a shootout.

The Bulgarian men’s team began their home tournament with a loss to Russia, but they worried their opponents in the second set before going down in straight sets 17:9, 18:14.

Day two of competition throws off at 10:00 EEST (09:00 CEST) with the men’s competition. The women’s action resumes an hour later with Bulgaria taking on Germany on the main court at 11:00 EEST (10:00 CEST).

Don’t forget the competition gets widespread coverage on the various EHF channels.

The venue includes a main court and three outside courts, with the matches on all four courts streamed live on EHFTV. Also, the Home of Handball social media channels on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook will be covering the event in full with behind-the-scenes access and interviews from the stars of the show.

All photos © Sasa Pahic Szabo / kolektiff