Bercik and Dzavoronok back in Ios to defend their 2022 title
Futures in Europe
Ios was the stage of the only international victory in the careers of Vaclav Bercik and Matyas Dzavoronok and this week the Czechs will be back there to defend their 2022 title as the Greek island hosts the next Volleyball World Beach Pro Futures in Europe.
Partners since the start of 2022, the 26-year-old Bercik and the 21-year-old Dzavoronok have in their victory at last year’s Ios Futures their most relevant result in nine international events. The Czechs, who entered last year's event as the 11th-seeded and stunned top-seeded Israelis Eylon Elazar and Netanel Ohana in the final, are yet to return to the podium on the Beach Pro Tour, having a fifth-place finish at the Budapest Futures as their second-best result.
In order to defend their title, the third-seeded Czechs will need to overcome strong competition from within and outside Europe as 19 countries will be represented in the men’s tournament. Europe accounts for 19 of the 28 teams entered in the event, with hosts Greece having five duos, Czechia sending two and Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Scotland and Switzerland one each. The non-European teams to compete at the Ios Futures hail from Australia (4), Argentina (2), Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
Bercik and Dzavoronok will need to overcome a Tokyo Olympian in order to finish in first place this week in Greece. Argentinean Julian Azaad, 32, is the Olympian present in the men’s field in Greece. He competed in Tokyo two years ago with Nicolás Capogrosso, but now plays with Maciel Bueno. The South Americans are seeded second in Ios, right behind compatriots Bautista Amieva and Leo Aveiro.
The women’s event will have one half of the team that took bronze in Ios last year back in Lithuanian Ieva Dumbaskaite. The 28-year-old blocker, who made it to the podium in third place in 2022 with Gerda Grudzinskaite, will this time play alongside Skalve Krizanauskaite, with the duo ranking first in the qualifier.
The three main contenders in the Greek tournament are top-seeded Argentineans Maia Najul and Cecilia Peralta, who took bronze at the Lecce Futures two weeks ago, second-seeded Austrians Katharina Schützenhöfer and Franziska Friedl, a new team that’s having quick progress, and fourth-seeded Danish Clara Windeleff and Sofia Bisgaard, who took silver at last year’s U22 EuroBeachVolley.
The women’s tournament in Ios will also feature 28 teams, coming from four continents. Besides hosts Greece, which will be represented by four teams, Lithuania, Latvia and the Netherlands with two duos, are the other European countries with multiple entrants – Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, England, Estonia, Italy, Norway, Spain and Switzerland have one tandem each. Canada, with two teams, Argentina, Chile, Japan, New Zealand, Peru and the United States complete the list of countries present at the event.
The tournament begins on Wednesday, with the qualifier taking place at the Mylopotas Beach – four teams in each gender will secure the last spots in the main draw, which starts on Thursday with 16 men’s and women’s duos. The medal matches will be played on Saturday.
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 ranking points during the Olympic qualification period for the Paris 2024 Games.