All-Austrian podium highlights European Beach Pro Tour success

European beach volleyball teams had yet another successful weekend at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour as duos from the continent won seven of the nine medals in play in Futures events in Baden, Austria, and Montpellier, France, over the last few days.

The host country of a double-gender tournament, Austria had a weekend to celebrate with complete podium domination in the men’s event. Ukraine, France, Spain and Germany were the other nations to end the weekend with medals.

In Baden, Austria proved their strength in the continent by entirely dominating the men’s semifinals. In the end, EuroBeachVolley participants Alexander Horst and Julian Hörl were the winners with their straight-set (21-19, 21-15) victory over compatriots Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller.

Qualifiers Paul Pascariuc and Laurenz Leitner caused surprise by finishing third. In the bronze medal match, the two defeated veterans Alexander Huber and Christopher Dressler in the tie-breaker (21-17, 22-24, 15-12).

The women’s event in Austria also ended with a European team at the top of the podium after the victory of Inna and Iryna Makhno. The Ukrainian twins were on the winning side of a nail-biting, three-set (18-21, 22-20, 20-18) gold medal match against China’s Jinjin Zeng and Xinxin Wang.

Germans Chenoa Crist and Anna-Lena Grüne also beat a Chinese duo to secure their spot on the podium. In the bronze medal match, the Europeans topped Lingdi Zhu and Meimei Lin in two sets (21-16, 21-14).

In Montpellier, the men-only event ended with European tandems in second and third places. Frenchmen Arthur Canet and Teo Rotar, the U19 world champions, advanced all the way to the gold medal match, but fell to champions Rolando Hernandez and Hernan Tovar of Venezuela in the tie-breaker (21-19, 17-21, 10-15).

Spanish Javier Huerta and Oscar Jimenez were the winners of the all-European bronze medal match, overcoming Norwegians Nils Ringøen and Jo Sunde in straight sets (21-19, 21-18).

Next week, between Thursday and Sunday, the Beach Pro Tour will be back in Warsaw, Poland, for the second time in the season. This time, the tournament played in the Polish capital will be exclusive for the men.