The Jarun Cup traditionally showcases a wide range of beach handball experience and the 2025 edition is no different.
Over 750 players have been competing in five age groups across nine different men’s and women’s events, with players ranging from world champions all the way through to first-timers.
But for the ‘Blue Team’, they have had their eyes on not one, but two competitions – the senior women’s event and women’s U18 event (called Women’s 2008 at Jarun).
The reason for this is simple, they are preparing for the YAC 17 EHF Beach Handball Championship which will be held in Turkiye from 3 to 6 July.
Coached by Claudio Zafarana and Stefano Chirone, the team arrived in Zagreb, three weeks after a training camp in Hammamet, Tunisia and quickly got down to business, playing four times in the younger age category and eight times in the senior competition across the four-day event.
They ended their senior campaign with a victory against Polish side BHT Bielsko-Biala Young 2-0 (30:8, 25:10), the result backed up by three further wins in the younger age category, which saw them finish with a runners-up spot.
All of this experience is valuable as the team hopes to make an impact in Turkiye in just two months’ time.
“For us, it is important to prepare as we have a new group of young girls and this is the first time they are playing beach handball,” said coach Zafarana. “It is very important for to develop beach handball with the young people in Italy, because we are the country that invented it and want to restart the sport and be a big country again it.”
In Turkiye, the team will initially face Hungary, Lithuania, France, Norway and Romania and coach Zafrarana is in no doubt that his fledgling side can push through to the latter stages of competition.
“We want to be in the last four teams, it’s my dream, our dream,” he said. “But this dream is not an illusion, because we know our potential. We know that if we play good, we can dream.”
Looking to turn that dream into reality is player Eleonora Josefine Skarsaune-Terzi, who top-scored on 14 points to bring home that solitary senior competition win at Jarun.
The Trondheim, Norway-based athlete has an Italian father Norwegian mother and plays indoor handball for Vikhammer, just east of the Norwegian city.
“Last year I did some beach handball training and then this year we were playing at my indoor club and we had one training outside on the beach just for fun,” explains the player about her beach handball journey.
“In February, I received an email saying I was selected to come and play for Italy and that was my first time really playing. It’s feel very good to play for them, it gives you an emotion of doing something important, and it’s a very good experience. Everyone made me feel very welcome and I was not nervous as I knew some of them before from indoor handball, it’s a very good group.”
For both the coach and player, the experience of switching between the senior and younger age categories in Jarun has been worthwhile in a physical, mental and tactical sense.
“In the younger categories, when you play with speed and are organised it’s easy to get goals, but when you play with older people, yes, it’s speed, but the players understand very fast the situation,” explained coach Zafarana. “We had the problem in adapting to it, but it’s normal at this age. What is important is the experience, the experience of seeing the rapidity of execution. Technically, it’s another world, but we are here for this, for work.”
“The senior players know how to adjust our team and our tactics, and I think that’s the main difference,” adds Skarsaune-Terzi, who cites the legendary Norwegian captain Stine Oftedal as one of her favourite players. “They’re very calm in every situation, and don’t rush things.”
And one of their opponents was also quick to praise the development of the young Italian side.
“There is heaps of potential there,” said London GD’s Francesca Graham, who faced Blue Team in the senior competition. “They had lots of movement in their attack. Of course, their defence are a little bit shorter than us, so our game plan was to take advantage of that, but they were getting to the line on their attack – they’re doing all the right things.”
Despite their losses at the Jarun Cup, each and every member of Blue Team had wide smiles on their faces and are another step forward on their quest to perform well at the European Championship.
“I hope we have a great experience and that we do our best and come as far as we can,” says Skarsaune-Terzi about the upcoming Turkiye experience, before switching back to the Jarun Cup.
“I was really excited about coming to the Jarun Cup because I’ve seen the photos, and it’s a really nice cup. I like the vibes of beach handball, it’s more free and fun and, also, by playing the women’s categories, you learn a lot by how they play, but also how we can get better.”
Pictures: Paweł Jakubowski/PAWI.PL
