The USA and Mexico competed in the first leg of the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour in Maricá, Brazil. The USA finished in 5th place in the Men’s competition while the USA edged Mexico in the bronze medal match to take 3rd place in the Women’s competition.
The Women’s Bronze Medal game was an all NACHC affair and rematch of an earlier round robin group play match that saw Mexico beat the USA in a shoot out 2:1. In the rematch, Mexico won the first set 26:14 while the U.S won the second set, 18:15 to force another shoot out with the U.S. winning this time, 6:2. The game winning save by USA GK, Staci Self can be seen here. In the gold medal match, Brazil beat Argentina to finish undefeated for the whole tournament
Christine Mansour (USA) finished as the top scorer of the championship with 81 points in six games
IHF Competition Page (Women): Link (click on “view details” for the streaming video link for every match)
In the Men’s competition, the USA was the sole NACHC representative. In Group play the USA was very competitive, but as luck would have it they lost two close penalty shootouts to Uruguay and Portugal to finish in 5th place in the group. In the the 5th place match they defeated Chile 2-1. Brazil beat Argentina 2-0 to take gold while Portugal beat Uruguay to finish 3rd.
IHF Competition Page (Men): Link
