The Cook Islands have been making great strides in their ongoing development of handball across the 15-island nation.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, the Oceanic country returned to global handball, notably hosting the 2022 Men’s IHF Trophy Oceania stage and participating in subsequent Oceania Continent Handball Federation (OCHF) Men’s and Women’s Oceania Beach Handball Championships amongst other events.

On a national scale handball has featured regularly at the Cook Islands Games and Cook Islands National Beach Games, but events have tended to be centred around the largest and most populous island of the country, Rarotonga, home to capital city Avarua.

However, that changed this year with the first-ever Cook Islands Handball Association event on an “outer island”.

The “Handball in Heaven” outdoor, grass-based seven-a-side competition, sponsored by Vodafone Cook Islands, was held in the village of Amuri on the island of Aitutaki in collaboration with the Amuri Sport Association and Aitutaki Sport Association.

The one-day event, paid for by the entire Cook Islands Handball Association Executive, saw six mixed teams compete in two groups before the top two in each faced off in the semi-finals and then medal matches. Amuri 1 took the title, defeating Tautu 8-2 in the final.

“It was an historical event for us as it was the first time handball has been introduced to the outer islands since we started developing the sport from the mainland, Rarotonga,” said president of the Cook Islands Handball Association Makiroa Mitchell-John, to ihf.info.

“The event was to not only promote the sport of handball in general, but to assist and support the village of Amuri, via the Aitutaki Sports Association, towards their goal of building an outdoor multisport court which they have never had. It has been a process to get the island council and association involved but we have now after 20 years and are so overwhelmed.”

With the 2024 edition of the Cook Islands National Beach Games held during the Aitutaki event and resources stretched, Aitutaki took priority, but there will plenty more handball action in the Cook Island to come this year.

“We have three local competitions for beach and indoor handball planned as we align our local and national competitions to organise and train our teams for IHF Trophy events. We also have the Cook Islands Games in October 2024 which is our big event,” explained Mitchell-John.

“Our hope is to develop at all levels in both disciplines of indoor and beach and we are very grateful for the IHF Trophy concept which has assisted countries like us who have programmes.

“You have to understand on small island nations we have depleting populations. Our population is 14,000 and depleting, but we currently have 36 sports codes trying to recruit and retain so that's hard. In both indoor and beach we have three blocks of competitions back-to-back in 10-week slots with beach competitions being played at the beginning of the week based on the availability of beach courts, and indoor at the end of the week based on venue availability,” she added.

“Therefore, we have to ensure we secure our slots as things can change weekly with our venues. We only have one arena for indoor and one beach court area so we have to share facilities with other national federations too.”

Despite all the challenges, handball in the Cook Islands continues to be visible and Mitchell-John is looking forward to being part of its ongoing development.

“We started as an association on 28 October 1998 and have developed slowly but surely - our hope is to survive as a sport in the Cook Islands,” she explained.

“We are all dedicated volunteers and as an all-female executive it has not been easy in a male-dominated space, plus with the cultural protocols we have here, but we have managed well enough to ensure that our future generations are able to play and share their experiences with other handball players in Oceania and the wider world.”

• International Handball Federation

Results

Handball in Heaven 2024: Final Ranking: 1. Amuri 1, 2. Tautu, 3. Amuri 2, 4. Pink Panthers, 5. A Town, 6. Ureia.

Awards: Most Valuable Player: Paura Isamaela and Terangi Terei; Most Improved Player: Vaeae Isamaela and Zoey Kamoe; Top Goalkeeper: Taivero Henry and Faireka Isamaela; Top Scorer: Paura Isamaela and Terangi Terei; Best Organised Team: Ureia.