Europeans claim all six medals in Rakvere
Futures in Europe
Rakvere’s first time hosting an international beach volleyball tournament brought a lot of success to European teams as duos from the continent won each of the six medals in play in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event held in the Estonian city this week.
Duos from Germany, Sweden, hosts Estonia, Ukraine and Lithuania stepped on the podium of the event held at the Rakvere Vallimägi, generating another successful ending to a Futures event held in Europe this summer.
The women’s title went to Germans Anna-Lena Grüne and Chenoa Christ, who defeated Ukrainians Maryna Hladun and Tetiana Lazarenko in the three-set (15-21, 21-14, 15-12) gold medal match in Rakvere.
The Germans have been one of the hottest teams at the Futures level this season and celebrated their third title in 2024, following victories in Nuvali, the Philippines, in April, and Messina, Italy, in June.
Lithuanians Daniele Kvedaraite and Jekaterina Kovalskaja completed a memorable campaign that started on the qualifier, on Wednesday, at the podium, downing Germans Melanie Paul and Hanna-Marie Schieder by forfeit to take bronze.
On the men’s side, reigning U22 European champions, 18-year-old Elmer Andersson and 19-year-old Jacob Hölting Nilsson of Sweden, celebrated their first victory at the senior level and denied a home title, topping Estonians Urmas Piik and Dimitriy Korotkov in straight sets (21-16, 21-18) to stand at the top of the podium.
The bronze medal match didn’t take place for the men either, with Germans Robin Sowa and Maximilian Just taking the forfeit victory over Estonia’s top team of Kusti Nõlvak and Mart Tiisaar to claim bronze.
No Beach Pro Tour Futures events are scheduled to take place in Europe next week, with the next tournament on the calendar being the Leuven Futures, in Belgium, from June 18-21.
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.