Malta’s beach handball national team took their game to Greece as they represented the country in this year’s edition of the Mediterranean Beach Games. The Games, which took place in Patras, were a much needed source of experience and promotion for a sport which is still relatively new in Malta. Melita Falcons Beach Handball club’s team manager Adam Sule spoke to Kurt Aquilina about the development of beach handball in Malta…

Having only been introduced in 2015, beach handball has a very short history in Malta. However, it has recently been on the rise particularly due to the interest it is attracting, being so accessible across the island. Sule believes it has the potential to become one of Malta’s main sports.

“It is a very good opportunity for the country and for us players to make it one of Malta’s (main) sports because we are lucky to have great weather and many beaches. Also there are many guys who work hard to become the best,” Sule remarked.

“In Malta, you can play the sport whenever you want because the weather is nearly always perfect for it here. We have good courts with very good quality sand.

“But I feel we need to promote the sport. One of my plans is to travel around the different Maltese beaches during the summer to attract more people to watch and join in.”

Beach handball was merely one of 11 sport events which took place across the seven-day-long Mediterranean Beach Games which drew to a close this month.

Sule admitted that the challenge of reaching their targets was tough as they had been placed in Group B comprised of hosts Greece, Morocco, Italy and Tunisia.

“We worked very hard during the summer, (the players) trained very well so we were going to try our best,” Sule said.

“Personally I wanted to reach the top eight in the tournament but it was not going to be easy because of the group we had. We had to think game by game but then if we reached the top eight, anything could happen.”

The Malta squad came close to their goal as they managed to finish in ninth place.

The Maltese, having seen great improvement since the start but had no points to show for it, beat Albania in the playoff match for ninth and tenth place, winning both sets 28-15 and 14-9 respectively.

Asked about the development of the sport so far, Sule acknowledged that Maltese beach handball is not up to the standard they would like it to be as yet. However,  he said: “we can reach a very high level if we keep on working hard. We need to compete in a lot of tournaments and play a lot of games. We would like to take part in as much European championships as we can in the future.”

One of the club’s future plans is to expand their game by creating a women’s team and youth team. “I would like to organise training camps for our teams. We already have one of the best women’s teams in Europe willing to come over for a training camp before their champions league commitments begin,” Sule explained.

He added that they already receive valuable support from the European Handball Federation and this leads to significant improvements in the local game coming from the various visits from international coaches who work with the team on specific aspects of the game.

Away from the national team, Sule’s Melita Falcons have also been representing Malta abroad for quite some time already.

Last year, the team participated in beach handball’s edition of the Champions League and having placed 15th overall, he believes it was a great start, particularly because of the opponents they faced during the competition.

Sule mentioned the notable Krasnodar, who finished as runners up after having won it the year before. Apart from the Russian giants, the team also faced Gothenburg and Malaga, both built on the talent which has brought home world and European championships respectively.

Sule said that despite the results, “it was a very high level tournament experience for­ us.”

Results

Group stage
Italy vs Malta 2-0 (32-16, 20-17)
Malta vs Greece 0-2 (10-24, 3-18)
Malta vs Morocco 0-2 (9-12, 12-20)
Tunisia vs Malta 2-0 (16-4, 22-16)

9/10 Playoff:
Albania vs Malta 0-2 (15-28, 9-14)