Brussels welcomes second straight event in Belgium
Futures in Europe
The Paris Olympics are going at full pace, with pool play ending this weekend, but for the European beach volleyball players not competing under the Eiffel Tower, the Belgian capital Brussels is the place to be in the next four days as it hosts a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Future event from Thursday to Sunday.
Brussels will host a second-straight Beach Pro Tour Futures event in Belgium as the city of Leuven staged another tournament from July 18-21. It will also be the first international beach volleyball event held in the city.
Three women’s teams that will compete at the 2024 CEV EuroBeachVolley later this month will finalize their preparations for the tournament by competing this week in Brussels – second-seeded Czechs Miroslava Dunarova and Daniela Mokrá, third-seeded Ukrainians Valentyna Davidova and Anhelina Khmil and fifth-seeded Finish Taru Lathi and Niina Athiainen.
The women’s tournament will have 28 teams from 18 countries and will have massive European representation, with hosts Belgium featuring five teams, Czechia and Germany three, Finland and France two and Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Ukraine one each. Canada, Japan, the United States and Venezuela have each one duo entered.
Beach Pro Tour Brussels Futures
On the men’s side, no teams entered for the EuroBeachVolley will compete in Brussels, but the field is still going to be a strong one, with Austrians Christoph Dressler and Tim Berger appearing as the top-seeded, Italians Tobia Marchetto and Jakob Windisch ranking second and the Belgian Vandecaveye brothers Gilles and Louis entering as the third-seeded tandem.
As many as 28 teams from 19 countries are entered, including five from Belgium, three from Italy, two from Czechia and Germany and one from Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Spain and Ukraine. Coming from outside Europe are two duos from Thailand and one from Argentina, Canada and South Africa.
The men’s and women’s qualifiers will be held on Thursday, with pool play unfolding on Friday. The Round of 12 and quarterfinal rounds will take place on Saturday, with the semifinals and medal matches closing 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.