Spain have made history. The Spanish national wheelchair handball team became world champions for the first time on Sunday, beating Japan in the final of the 4th World Championship at the Palau d'Esports in Granollers (Barcelona). Spain had never lifted this title before.
A final decided by sets, with a comeback included
The championship, in its "four-a-side" format, is played in sets rather than with the running scoreline of conventional handball. Spain won the first (13-9), Japan took the second emphatically (17-5), and everything was settled in a nail-biting third set that Spain closed out 6-5 after trailing 3-0. The resilience to turn around that poor start in the deciding set was, according to the tournament reports, the key to the title.
The individual stars had names and surnames: the pairing of Lorenzo Edjang and Agustín Alejos scored twenty-two of the Spanish side's twenty-four total points in the final, a level of accuracy that proved decisive in the most pressured moments of the match.
The first time the World Championship is played in Europe
This fourth edition of the Wheelchair Handball World Championship was held from 16 to 20 September, with twelve qualified national teams, and it was the first time the competition had been staged on European soil. That Spain won their first title in this very edition, and on home soil too, adds a special chapter to the history of this sport in the country.
The road to the final was not easy. Spain began the tournament in Group A with a win over Libya, but lost to France in the group stage. The response came in the knockout phase: they beat Brazil in the quarter-finals and Chile in the semi-finals before facing Japan for the title.
Óscar Perales, world champion in his first tournament in charge of the national team
Head coach Óscar Perales, a former player from Valladolid, took over the national bench at the start of 2026 and made his debut in the role at this very World Championship. Alongside him on the coaching staff were Javier Larrea as assistant coach, Manuel Belver as team manager and Borja Pascual as the team's mechanic, a role as specific as it is indispensable in a sport where the competition chair is as much a part of performance as the player's physical fitness.
The title comes at a time of sustained growth for wheelchair handball in Spain, a discipline that continues to gain visibility within national adapted sport. Becoming world champions for the first time in history, in the first European edition of the tournament, is the best possible showcase for continuing to help it grow.
