The 17th edition of the Jarun Cup – one of the biggest beach handball tournaments in the world – has thrown-off on the shores of Lake Jarun in Croatia’s capital city, Zagreb.
As tradition, the event got underway on the Croatian National Public Holiday of ‘Labour Day’ – 1 May – and will last for four days before its concludes with finals day on Sunday 4 May.
In total, over 750 players are expected to feature in five age groups across nine different men’s and women’s events featuring 280 games played on four courts. For the first time, the newly-expanded men’s and women’s senior events will both feature 24 teams each.
Over 16 countries will feature on the sand in Jarun, with Croatia, Denmark, Spain, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden amongst those countries represented.
The event also serves as the first European summer stop on the EHF ‘European Beach Tour’ (ebt) circuit, with 602 points at stake, the second most of the season.
Reigning champions full of global talent
Highlights of the Jarun Cup 2025 include the reigning senior champions in both the men’s and women’s competitions returning to defend their titles.
In the women’s senior competition, Westsite Amsterdam from the Netherlands will look to Dutch national team players Rianne Mol, Isabel Barnard, Marit van Ede and Manon Zijlmans, who all won bronze at the 2024 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship in China, to guide them to the top of the podium again. They are led by national team assistant coach Leon Bude.
Portuguese side GRD Leça – Spar also can boast recent IHF World Championship bronze medallists in their squad, with 2024 winners Francisco Santos and Ricardo Castro leading the team in Croatia and hoping to end with a gold medal again.
In addition to the stars from Portugal and Netherlands, a whole host of other stars feature too, including members of the Hungarian, Danish and Swedish senior national teams and Italy women’s U17 side.
However, home fans will relish the opportunity to support their current The World Games, Mediterranean Games and IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship champions Croatia, with Ivan Juric, Ivan Dumencic, Lucia Bura, Josip Leko and Valentino Valentaković amongst others featured in the registered squads.
The next generation
In addition to the senior team events, there will be boys’ and girls’ events for the generations born in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 or younger with just under 40 teams registered.
And the next generation is also represented with the whistle too as the Jarun Cup enters into a partnership with the European Handball Federation (EHF), who will be using the event for their ‘EHF Beach Handball Candidate Referee Programme’.
Four young couples will participate in the programme for four days of assessment and training with the aim of preparing them for the next step in their careers on the sand.
These include the host country pairing of Marin Malinic and Andro Vucetic (Croatia), Greta Osvai and Alexandra Krisztina Rubint from Hungary, Polish pair Michal Jakubek and Mikolaj Marcinkowski, plus the Serbian pair of Marija Radoicic and Jovana Mrksic.
‘Beautiful and fun’
Ahead of the Jarun Cup 2025, Matija Šulc, President of ABHC Zagreb, the club which organises the Jarun Cup, sent a message to all those involved, while wishing them the best of luck.
“We expect this tournament to be exceptional, with teams and officials from many European nations participating,” he said.
“Our plan for this year is to further increase the quality of tournaments while staying in the top five of European tournaments. I hope you will recognise our efforts to popularise beach handball and I hope that we can open the new EBT season as best we can, having fun and showing the most beautiful sport to the spectators.”
Follow and watch the Jarun Cup 2025
Follow and engage with the Jarun Cup via the website, Facebook or Instagram. Live results can be found at results.jaruncup.com.
You can watch live action from courts 1, 2 and 3 of the Jarun Cup 2025, by going to https://solidsport.com/jaruncup.