Bibinje kicks off the Preliminary Phase for the women
Beach Nations Cup 2024
The journey to the Paris 2024 Olympics through the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup resumes for teams in Europe this weekend, when the 2024 edition of the tournament starts with a women’s Preliminary Phase event in Bibinje, Croatia.
Teams from Belgium, hosts Croatia, Hungary, Portugal, Scotland and Ukraine will play for three days, from Friday to Sunday, in Pool D, with the winners advancing to the Beach Nations Cup Finals, where a ticket to the Paris Games will be at stake.
The Beach Nations Cup Finals will be held in Jurmala from June 13-16 and, besides host country Latvia, are already guaranteed Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Poland, who won their pools in the Preliminary Phase of the Beach Nations Cup 2023.
Four other spots will be earned through the pools of the Beach Nations Cup 2024, which will take place over the next weeks, with a 12th and final berth being allocated to the National Federation with the highest position in the CEV Country Ranking as of June 10th, 2024, among all those finishing as runners-up in the 2024 Preliminary Phase.
The Beach 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.
The captain of the Great Britain volleyball national team at the London 2012 Olympics, 38-year-old Lynne Beattie will be the most experienced player in the Scottish squad, partnering with Mhairi Wallace. The other team of the country will have Rachel Morrison and Kathryn Barbour.
A U21 world champion in 2021, Tetiana Lazarenko is a big name in the Ukrainian roster, playing alongside Maryna Hladun. Four-time CEV EuroBeachVolley participant Inna Makhno will also be in action, pairing with Sofiia Rylova.
Hosts Croatia will be represented by Ema Mrkic/Ana Sverko and Lucijana Terze/Mirna Becic, while Belgium will have the teams of Sarah Cools/Lisa Van Den Vonder and Inès Piret/Annelore Bex.
Completing the tournament’s lineup, Portugal will have Beatriz Pinheiro/Ines Castro and Margarida Santos/Carolina Maia, while Hungary will be represented by Chiara Honti-Majoros/Stefánia Flóra Kun and Adrienn Szabó/Lilla Villám.
Beatriz Pinheiro"We're really excited to finally start our 2024 season. We'll head into the Beach Nations Cup very motivated to play and show the work we've been doing over these last months."
Portuguese beach volleyball player.