The Egyptian beach handball team surprised even themselves when they won the first ever World Beach Handball Championship. Inas Mazhar attended the four-day event in Hurghada Egypt became not only the first country to host the first official World Beach Handball Championship, but the first to win the title as well. El-Zaytouna beach resort saw thousands of spectators -- locals and foreigners -- make their way to the three- beach courts by boat to cheer their teams on. Tuesday was an impressive moment for the Egyptians who unexpectedly claimed the title after a thrilling final against Turkey. Egypt won 2-1 after taking the first half 13-9 but lost the second half 10-16 to Turkey. In the ensuing penalty shoot-outs out of five, Egypt won 5-0. (In beach handball, a match is composed of two 10-minute halves. The winner of the two halves wins 2-0. If the teams draw 1-1 in halves, they must have penalty throws to find a winner). The matches were held from early morning until sunset. And because a game lasts for only 20 minutes, sometimes a team would play two matches a day. Khaled Hassan, Egypt's head coach, was ecstatic. "I never expected to win. The team came together just four months ago and they were inexperienced compared to others who started playing beach handball years ago. Most of the countries played at least two European championships in addition to friendly tournaments. This was our first official event." Egypt played three friendly games to prepare for the tournament. "I found the players getting into it, becoming more experienced and improving," Hassan added. "We were eager to win. The players wanted to present the cup as a gift to Hassan Mustafa, president of the International Handball Federation, because he's running in the elections tomorrow [for re-election as IHF president] and we all wish him luck," Hassan said. Russia finished third, beating Croatia 2-1, (16-10, 8-14, 10-8) in a penalty shootout. In the play-off for fifth and sixth place, Hungary beat Ukraine 2-1 (20-20, 14-20, 8- 6). Bahrain beat Oman 2-1 (14-18, 16-14, 5-4) for seventh and eighth place while Brazil came in last. The medal distribution was attended by Ibrahim Nafie, board chairman of Al- Ahram Organisation, and Mustafa. In the women's event, which employed a round-robin format, Russia claimed the title after beating Turkey 2-1 in the final (13-8, 8-15, 4-2). Italy finished third. followed by Croatia, Brazil, Hungary, Japan and Hong Kong. The men's all-star team was comprised of Egypt's goalkeeper Hamdi Abdel-Fattah, Turkey's Ozgur Eryilmaz, Bahrain's Raid Marzouk and Russia's Sergey Shalabanov. The women's all-star team included Brazil's Baquel Pesson, Italy's Sposi Daniella, Turkey's Ozel Yeliz and Natalia Evtovkhova of Russia.
