Czech teams triumph at home in Brno again
Futures in Europe
Hosts Czechia had a lot to celebrate on Sunday, the last day of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event held in Brno, as three home teams made it to the podium, with two of them winning gold, repeating what had happened last year.
With the host country collecting half of the six medals in play at the lakefront Sokolske Koupaliste, Switzerland, on the men’s side, and France and Estonia, among the women, claimed the three remaining podium spots, making it another event that had European medal sweeps on both genders.
Czechia enjoyed tremendous success on the men’s side, with two teams from the host country meeting in the final in Brno. At the end, Jakub Šépka and Jiří Sedlák swept (21-13, 21-16) compatriots Adam Waber and Matyáš Ježek, who took silver for a second-straight season, to claim the title.
Jiří Sedlák“I’m so happy that we got to win gold here. I think we deserve it for the performances we had in the entire tournament.”
Czech Beach Volleyball Player
Beach Pro Tour Brno Futures – Men
Bronze went to Swiss Florian Breer and Luc Flückiger, who defeated Slovakians Lubos Nemec and Adrian Petruf in the tie-breaker (21-19, 18-21, 15-13) and made it to the podium in the Czech event.
On the women’s side, the home fans got to celebrate the victory of Valerie Dvorníková and Michaela Břínková, who surprisingly won the title after entering the event as the 11th-seeded team by taking down French Anouk Dupin, who won her sixth medal in six events this season, and Elsa Descamps in the tie-breaker (27-29, 21-12, 15-12) in the gold medal match.
Michaela Brinkova“We can’t believe it. We’re so happy, my hands are still shaking. We gave everything we had left in the gold medal match and it worked.”
Czech Beach Volleyball Player
Beach Pro Tour Brno Futures – Women
Czechia had the possibility of sending a second team to the women’s podium too, but Estonians Heleene Hollas and Liisa Remmelg denied it by defeating Anna Pospisilova and Daniela Mokrá in the two-set (21-16, 21-19) bronze medal match in Brno.
Two Futures events will be held simultaneously in Europe from September 4-7, with the Polish capital Warsaw hosting a men-only tournament and the Hungarian capital Budapest welcoming a double-gender stop.
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.