The countdown continues with 200 days to go until the Indonesian island of Bali hosts the second edition of the ANOC World Beach Games, with open water swimming and beach water polo helping anchor the eight-day sports programme that runs from 5-12 August 2023.
Following the success of the inaugural edition of the Games that took place on the Persian Gulf coast in Doha, Qatar in 2019 that featured open water swimming's 5km event for men and women, beach water polo joins the competitive mix later this year on the Island of the Gods.
Other sports joining this year's event include 3x3 Basketball, AirBadminton, the Rowing Beach Sprint, and both longboard and shortboard surfing.
In 2019, Italy's Marcello Guidi took the men's title while Brazil's Ana Marcela Cunha added the women's Beach Games crown to her collection of global titles.
Open water swimming athletes and water polo teams qualified for the ANOC World Beach Games Bali 2023 through the 19th FINA World Championships Budapest 2022.
Germany's Florian Wellbrock and Brazil's Cunha won the open water swimming 5km in Budapest, winning the qualification pathway for their National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to Bali 2023.
In total, 31 different NOCs earned at least one of the 54 Qualification Places for the ANOC World Beach Games Bali 2023. For the Men’s event, the athletes participating in the Open Water 5km race at the FINA World Championship in Budapest earned quotas for the NOCs of Germany, Italy, Ukraine, France, Hungary, Australia, United States of America, Greece, Colombia, Japan, China, Turkey, Brazil, Austria, Chinese Taipei, South Africa, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Angola, Czech Republic and Serbia.
For the Women’s event, the currently qualified NOCs are Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Netherlands, Japan, United States of America, Hungary, Hong Kong China, Israel, South Africa, Czech Republic, Turkey, China, Canada, Republic of Korea, Peru, New Zealand, Seychelles and Slovenia.
The beach water polo tournament will feature 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams with a total of seven athletes per team. The three highest-ranked countries from both the Men's and Women's Water Polo Tournament at Budapest 2022 obtained their country quota places.x
The World Beach Games is also an opportunity to showcase different and modern disciplines that have proven popular with athletes and fans alike and differ from what is on the Summer Olympics sports programme.
The 2023 event is expected to garner more than 1,500 top-level athletes from more than 100 countries with Bali’s scenic beaches and the Indian Ocean serving as the playground.