With the established presentation and parade of all the participating countries, athletes and delegates, the World Beach Handball Championship for Men and Women officially started, at the facilities of Karteros beach sports center.

Many people were present at the opening ceremony, warmly applauding all the athletes who were in Heraklion from all over the world to attend this great competition.

Initially, the Deputy Minister of Sports, LefterisAvgenakis, after first thanking all the involved entities for their contribution to the perfect organization, stressed in his speech: "We welcome you to Karteros beach sports center for the second week of the World Beach Handball Championships. In a facility that took us only three months to complete and has already hosted for a week Youth Men and Youth Women from many parts of the world and today we have the official start of a second world competition, this time for men and women.

We are proud to welcome you to Greece in Crete and Heraklion and I want to tell you that I do not feel like missing this facility. For a few hours, however, I was in Athens to announce together with another group of collaborators one more world competition for motor sports and so on September 8, Greece organizes for the second time the Acropolis Rally, this time with a special route in Olympic stadium.

The joys for our country come in abundance and fill us with energy, passion, strength, creativity and love. Love for sports, love for what you all really serve, which is the passion and the effort for victory but also the love for the sport, the solidarity.

I want to say to the organizing committee of the Beach Handball World Championship and the president Mr. Violitzis, the president of the International Federation Mr. Masi, but also all the executives of the event that you won, but also the athletes of Beach Handball, many friends here in Greece, in Crete and I am one of them.

We will also show our strength in the sand, as we have already given two matches with a team consisting of the executives, the administration and the employees of the National Sports Center of Heraklion, with opponents, always in quotes, the members of the team of journalists, who are coveringall this event for the second consecutive week. We are 1-1 and we will have the third and decisive match and I hope we have you near us to applaud us.

Here in this country that is small, but strong and full of values ​​and gave birth to the Olympic Games, we will be on the side of the national teams of men and women with the hope that they will bring us distinctions again".

The President of the Hellenic Handball Federation, Mr. Costas Gandis, then stated on his part: "On behalf of the Hellenic Handball Federation, I welcome all the athletes, the approximately 1,500 participants, from 62 countries in Heraklion, Crete, in the hospitable Cretan land, in our Greece, the symbol of the culture of freedom of democracy that hopes with these events to highlight its history and its beauties.

In Heraklion, in Crete, a new beginning starts. We begin to produce a new product, sports tourism which will extend during the summer months to an amazing facility with thousands of spectators, fans and athletes, all of whom will try to highlight Beach Handball in the summer, amid a war that has skyrocketed the costs of all the factors in the event after a painful pandemic.

The Hellenic Handball Federation has placed its bet and undertaken 4 world championships back-to-back in a wonderful facility, which with the care of the Deputy Minister of Sports LefterisAvgenakis, with patience and work, was built in record time to host one of the largest events take over our country. An event which is a station, so that all national teams, of all coastal sports can have their headquarters here, at home.

I would like to warmly thank all my colleagues on the Board of Directors of the Federation, our committees, especially the Beach Handball Committee and the organizing committee, our executives, volunteers, citizens and ordinary fans of Heraklion, but also those who traveled to watch the games and wish them good luck and health.

I hope and believe that this first event in this national facility, which few countries in the world have like it, to be lucky and to have from now on other international events in which our national teams of all coastal competitions will participate and you the journalists who cover the event remember that this is a historic moment, thank you all ".

On his part, the chairman of the organizing committee, Mr. Violitzis, said: "We welcome you and thank you all for being here. Members of the International Federation, referees, judges and of course our imaginary volunteers who are becoming more and more day by day. Thanks to the stubbornness of the Deputy Minister of Sports, Mr. Avgenakis, who is constantly with us and watches over us, we have this important event. Of course, I cannot forget all these sponsors, young and old, from state and non-governmental organizations who are by our side and who support this event which is taking place these days in Heraklion.

Here in Greece where Olympism was born and its ideas such as parity and non-racism and discrimination with equality and fair play, here all this will follow us for the good of the sport, but also for the general good, because during the Olympic Games all the conflicts were stopping and there was Peace and Omonia. Athletes, let's go play and have fun!".

Finally, the president of the International Federation of Beach Handball, Mr. Massi, referred evidently touched by emotions: "I'm full of emotions today as it's not just a day when the Beach Handball World Championship starts, butit 's a day to announce to the world that this is the International Beach Handball Day.

On June 20, 1992, the first game of Beach Handball was played on a small Italian island. Last summer two coaches, some managers instinctively played on the beach and then I started writing the rules of the sport. This instinctive move really changed my life and the lives of thousands of athletes around the world.

Thirty years since that day, today here in Crete we have some of those people who have written the history of the sport and more than ever we look to the future with great optimism and at the same time we want to pay tribute to all these Beach Handball champions, the legends they gave that they had for the Sports".

Immediately after, Mr. Masi introduced these people who were applauded by the fans and are Messrs. Ali (Egypt), Meimaridis and Skara (Greece), Peiso (Brazil), Sepa (Brazil), Prunati (Argentina), Pires (Brazil), Rascon (Spain), Hassan (Qatar) and Rokavets (Croatia) and announced the start of the games. The modest opening ceremony was completed with a dance by the Lyceum of Greek Women, Heraklion branch.