2023 CEV Beach Volleyball Nations Cup set to start in Gstaad
News
One of the most traditional stops for international beach volleyball events in Europe, the Swiss village of Gstaad will host the opening event of the Preliminary Phase of the 2023 CEV Beach Volleyball Nations Cup this week, with matches taking place at the Gstaad Sports Center from Friday to Saturday – the Finals on Saturday will be streamed live on CEV YouTube channel.
The Swiss city was selected to host the competition in Pool F for the men, which will reunite teams from hosts Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Moldova and Türkiye – one of them will advance to the 2023 Nations Cup Finals, which will be held later in the year.
Created in 2022, the Nations Cup brings added weight in 2023 and 2024, serving as the European pathway in the qualification system for the beach volleyball tournament of the Paris 2024 Olympics – the countries that win the 2024 Finals among the men and the women will each earn a spot in the Games.
The race for Paris, however, starts right now for the 35 nations that are entered to compete in the 2023 Nations Cup as the three best countries in each gender in this year’s edition of the event will secure a spot in the 2024 Finals. All 35 countries begin in the Preliminary Round and each of the seven pool winners in each gender will get to compete in the Finals.
The Nations Cup has a different competition format, promoting ‘country vs. country’ battles. Each nation is represented by two teams and the duels take place in a best-of-three format, with the decider, if needed, being a 15-point golden set.
Germany will send a strong team to compete in Gstaad this week, featuring the country’s top duo of Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler and up-and-comers Lukas Pfretzschner and Robin Sowa.
Thomas Kaczmarek“The Nations Cup is a great opportunity for us to earn a spot in the Olympics and we’re approaching it very seriously, with the goal of making it to the Finals. I expect the Swiss, that have two teams that compete on the Beach Pro Tour, to be great opponents and the Turkish also have a lot of experience.”
German National Team Coach
Switzerland won’t count on Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer, who have been dealing with minor injuries, and will be represented by Adrian Heidrich/Leo Dillier and Quentin Métral/Yves Haussener.
Sara Urlu/Hasan Mermer and Mustafa Susam/Yusuf Ozdemir will represent Türkiye, Felix Terwindt/Maciej Complak and Steve Weber/Colin Hilbert will compete for Luxembourg and Timofei Chisleacov/Maxim Voleanin and Egor Dobics/Maxim Korsakov will be in action for Moldava.
The tournament will features seven matches and to come out on top of the pool a country will have to win at least two encounters.
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