Action continues this week in Sveti Vlas and Krakow
Futures in Europe
The season of Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Europe continues at full pace this week, with the Bulgarian town of Sveti Vlas and the Polish city of Krakow simultaneously hosting tournaments from Thursday to Sunday.
Sveti Vlas, which is set to host the first-ever Beach Pro Tour event in Bulgaria, and Krakow, which will welcome an international tournament for the first time, will become the fifth and sixth cities to host Futures in Europe in 2024 following stops in the Spanish capital Madrid, Italian cities Cervia and Battipaglia and Swiss town Spiez.
The venue for the double-gender tournament in Sveti Vlas, which hosted events of the Bulgarian domestic tour in 2022 and 2023, will be the picturesque Venid Beach, next to the magnificent Marina Dinevi yacht port in the Black Sea resort of Sveti Vlas, situated where the Balkan Mountains meet the Black Sea.
The men’s tournament in Bulgaria will have 28 teams in action, 22 of which coming from Europe – Bulgaria (5), Austria (2), Germany (2), Israel (2), the Netherlands (2), Czechia, England, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland. Duos from Australia (2), Egypt (2), Cameroon and the United States complete the lineup.
Florian Schnetzer“Playing beach volleyball close to the sea is simply the best you can do. It is the pure beach volleyball experience. We as a team are really looking forward to playing at such a beautiful place in Bulgaria. I have already played some one-star tournaments there and they were always great and well organized. We still have a small chance to qualify for the European Championship. So we're going all in. We will try to push as much as possible, going game by game, and then we'll see if it's enough.”
Austrian Beach Volleyball Player
The tournament is also seen as a great opportunity for the home teams as they continue to work their way up at both the continental and the international levels.
Dimitar Kalchev“I think the tournament is a great opportunity to test ourselves against international competition. We are happy that the promoters invested means and efforts to keep us as a part of the world’s beach volleyball community. If we want to have a duo at a good European level, there should be more participation in tournaments of this level. This is a good start as it is taking place in Bulgaria. The tournament in Sveti Vlas is a great step in the right direction and it should be followed by more such events.”
Bulgarian Beach Volleyball Player
Beach Pro Tour Sveti Vlas Futures
The women’s tournament in Sveti Vlas will also have 28 teams, with 20 of them representing European countries – Bulgaria (5), the Netherlands (3), Sweden (3), Czechia (2), France (2), Switzerland (2), Belgium, Israel and Slovakia. The remaining eight duos come from the United States (3), Egypt (2), Australia, Canada and Mauritius.
Among the standouts in the event are Dutch Wies Bekhuis and Brecht Piersma, who won last week’s Futures event in Spiez, and Rio 2016 Olympians Brooke Sweat (USA) and Doaa Elghobashy (Egypt).
Men play first in Krakow
The Krakow Futures will be split into two weekends, with the men getting on the court at the Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Square first. The event will feature 28 teams, including 24 from Europe – Poland (5), Czechia (2), Finland (2), Norway (2), Sweden (2), Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland. Duos from Brazil, Mauritius, South Africa and the United States will also be in action.
Among the standouts in the entry list are second-seeded Poles Jedrzej Brozyniak and Piotr Janiak, who have won two FIVB World Tour titles together, and Austrian veteran Alexander Huber, a Rio 2016 Olympian.
Both tournaments will run on a similar schedule, with qualifier matches taking place on Thursday, pool play unfolding on Friday, the elimination rounds happening on Saturday and the medal match ending the event on Sunday.
The Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Europe are run by the CEV in close cooperation with Volleyball World and provide teams from the continent with several opportunities to compete and gain valuable international ranking points.