The spectacular spinning shots, ally-oops and desperate defence of Beach Handball was on full display, with Australia falling just short of potential upsets of highly ranked European squads.

On the men’s side, the Australians lost a nervous opening game to Sweden 2-0 (22-11, 22-8) before almost upsetting the European champions Denmark, going down 21-20 (golden point), 23-16.

With matches going to penalties if drawn at a set apiece, locking up a single 10-minute set means setting up a penalty shootout for the win at worst.

Line player Scott Nicholson said coming so close to upsetting the highly-ranked Danes showed positive signs for the team.

“It’s disappointing coming so close and dropping that first set in golden point,” he said. “We’ve matched up well against Denmark, and up 2 in the first set with 10 seconds left we were close to getting over the line, but that’s why they’re the European champions - they know how to win from tough spots.

“We had a pretty poor showing against Sweden this morning so it was great to see the guys bounce back so effectively. The first game of a tournament is always full of nerves, but after getting the first game jitters out of the way looking forward to getting back into it tomorrow.”

On the women’s side, the Aussie team fell 2-0 (15-12, 19-12) to Poland before coming agonisingly close in the first set against reigning world champions Greece 17-16, 22-12.

Defender Tanya Beths said despite the disappointment at the final result against Greece, the performances bode well for the team throughout the rest of the tournament.

“There was really good energy in that first half to be right up there with the reigning world champions,” she said. “We were playing the game we wanted to play and fell just short, but looking forward to bouncing back tomorrow against China and Spain.”

Both Australian teams, who qualified for these Games by winning April's Oceania Championships, are competing against countries who have regular national and international competition through Europe, Asia and South America.

“The team is spread around the country and we meet up every month for national squad training,” Beths said. “I think the biggest challenge is just getting that high level game experience – Beach Handball is such a new sport to Australia so getting that high level in-game experience can be hard.”

The men’s team take on world champions Brazil and Oman in tomorrow’s matchups, with the women taking on China and Spain.

Australia’s karatekas and beach volleyballers kick off their World Beach Games campaigns on Saturday, with the Karate kata preliminary rounds, and Aussie female and male 4x4 Volleyballers taking on Gambia and Chile respectively. The Games will also celebrate the official Opening Ceremony Saturday evening.

You can check out the live stream here and find out more about the Team here.