Favourites dominant on day one at ebt Finals 2022

13 women’s sides and 16 men’s sides are in the running for the season titles at the four-day competition in Sicily, with the titles to be decided on Sunday. See all the match results and standings here: women’s; men’s.

• reigning title holders in the women’s competition, Spanish side GEA A.M. TEAM ALMERIA, started with two 2:0 wins in two games — first against Italian team Handball Erice then versus Dutch club KRAS Volendam
• the other 2020/21 medallists in the women’s ebt tournament, Westsite Amsterdam and Team Blue Bee, opened against each other, with Amsterdam winning 2:1 after a shootout. The Danish bronze medallists from last season, Team Blue Bee, recovered and collected their first points with a 2:0 win against TRIANA XÀBIA BMP SEVILLA
• the men’s reigning champions from last season, Hei Beach Handball, also started their campaign with two 2:0 victories. Playing in group C, the Danish team defeated Spanish side BMP Algeciras and Portugal’s LX50 Handball
• TRIANA XÀBIA BMP SEVILLA’s Natalia Iglesias is the clear top scorer in the women’s competition after day one, with 53 points. Her nearest rival is GRC Leça – Love Tiles Rita Alves, with 39 points
• the men’s tournament has joint-top scorers after day one: HIR-SAT BHC’s Norbert Gyene and MOVEX HANDBOL PLATJA GRANOLLERS’ Carles Asensio have both accumulated 34 points, two ahead of BHT GRU JUKO Piotrków Trybunalski’s Wojciech Lipinski

Tough competition in men’s group B

Only one preliminary round group of the seven — across both men’s and women’s competitions — saw all teams record one win and one loss on day one of the ebt Finals 2022: group B in the men’s tournament.

Portuguese team Os Tigres end the day in first position, although all four sides in the group have collected two points so far. Also in the very tight race for the main round from this group are Polish team GRU JUKO Piotrków Trybunalski, French side Team Tchatcheur and Hungarian HIR-SAT BHC.

The preliminary round in both competitions will conclude on Friday, with the main round to start immediately after.

Photos: Uros Hocevar / kolektiff