The preliminary round of the Beach Handball EURO 2021 in Varna finished Wednesday without major upsets – but only just.

In the concluding round of men’s matches, Norway came agonisingly close to missing out on a place in the main round, but the Scandinavians kept cool despite the hot temperatures on the Black Sea coast.

After losing to powerhouses Denmark and Spain earlier, the 2019 silver medallist faced a must-win game for third place in group A but had to come back from a set behind against Turkey and take the victory in a shoot-out, 2:1 (22:24, 24:20, 9:6).

Otherwise, the expected names advanced to the second stage of the competition, which will be contested on Thursday and Friday.

Six teams still unbeaten going into main round

The main round groups look as follows, in the men’s event:

• group I: Denmark (4 points), France (4), Hungary (2), Spain (2), Norway (0), Ukraine (0)
• group II: Croatia (4); Russia (4), Poland (2), Portugal (2), Germany (0), Sweden (0)

In the women’s event:

• group I: Norway (4 points), Denmark (4), Spain (2), Croatia (2), Hungary (0), Turkey (0)
• group II: Germany (4), Poland (2), France (2), Netherlands (2), Greece (2), Portugal (0)

In the men’s competition, all four group winners advanced after winning all their matches so far: Denmark, France, Croatia and Russia.

Norway and Germany were the only women’s teams to achieve the feat.

Joao Pinto and María Batista lead top scorer standings

In the men’s top scorers list after the preliminary round, Joao Pinto has his nose in front with 54 points for Portugal, ahead of Hungary’s Attila Kun and Turkey’s Cemal Kütahya, who are both on 47.

On the women’s side, María Batista has been the most productive player with 64, well ahead of the Danish duo of Line Kristensen and Line Larsen on 49 each.