Sand and deliver for beach handball duo | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

Handball pioneers – that’s Canterbury players Nicole Odermatt and Jaclyn Parker.

The pair are in the first New Zealand women’s team for the world beach handball championships.

However, while beach handball capitalises on the pizzazz and glamour associated with beach volleyball, getting to the fourth world championships in Antalya, Turkey, in June is a hard road for the nine Kiwi girls selected.

They have to meet the costs of travel ($3400 each) and three sets of uniforms, as well as going to Wellington every three weeks for training camps since February.

Odermatt, 28, got into handball when she was 13 and her family was living in Switzerland.

"Over there it’s huge and you get taught it at school," she said. "It’s a bit like netball and rugby here."

She was selected for the Zurich region youth team, and as a senior played in the second highest division and also a few matches in the top division before returning to New Zealand five years ago where she’s helped foster the sport.

Just before coming home she’d tried beach handball in Zurich. Even though they won the America’s Cup, Switzerland and beaches hardly seem a natural association – they imported the sand.

Parker, a 21-year-old physio student, started indoor volleyball only a year ago, and quickly moved to the beach code, too, doing well in the national trials.

She’d got interested in handball watching Olympic matches on TV.

"It’s a lot more physical than most sports, and I like that aspect," she said.

The worlds would be "an interesting experience" – New Zealand had both the European and world champions in their pool, she pointed out.

And Odermatt warned it would be very tough.

"The reality is we are underdogs and cannot expect to rock up and win it. But we take it very seriously and we have been training very hard for it."

The beach matches are four-aside with two 10min halves.

Each half is scored individually, so if it finishes 1-1 the match is decided on a shoot-out.