France secured a top-four finish and booked a spot in the semi-finals at the Dakar 2026 beach handball tournament after overcoming the People’s Republic of China in a tense shoot-out on the sand.
After coming from behind in sets against China, France won the shoot-out 7:2 to earn two attempts at an Olympic Games medal. The campaign began on the sand of the centre court at Saly Beach West in Senegal, where France faced the host nation in their opening pre-match warm-up and match, ultimately losing the shoot-out 15:14 after splitting the first two sets.
France bounced back in the afternoon with a 2-0 win against Kenya. Following a night to think about the first day, the team returned for preliminary group action against Uruguay, the world championship fifth-placed side that had beaten France to that spot the previous year.
France won the first set 29:18—marking the most points scored in a set in the women’s competition at the tournament up to that point—though Uruguay fought back to take the second set and the shoot-out 8:6.
Those group rankings led to the quarter-final clash against China, where France finally broke their shoot-out streak.
“It’s fantastic because we lost every shoot-out in the first part of the competition, and now, in the quarter-finals we won and that’s magic – we have many emotions.”
said France goalkeeper Nolwenn Noel to IHF.info after the match.
“We looked at China a lot on the video to understand their game because they are a good team. In the game, we did the things we could do to stop them and it was perfect. Our defence was good. The goalkeepers did the job and our attack scored many goals, and that’s perfect.”
Noel also noted the encouragement provided by the coaching staff during the match. Between the two sets, the coach urged the players forward with motivation, while defence coach Yvelise Dublanc told them to do what they knew they could do to win.
Having finished fifth at the European championship one year prior, France has now surpassed that result by reaching the semi-finals, with their ultimate objective remaining the gold medal.
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