Europeans dominate the podiums in Cervia and Madrid
Futures in Europe
European teams from seven different countries stepped on the podium this week on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, when two Futures events were held on the continent – a double-gender tournament in Cervia, Italy, and a men’s event in Madrid, Spain.
With one gold and one silver medal won, Germany and Czechia were the countries that appeared in the podium twice, with each of Denmark, Italy, Norway, Slovenia and Spain also having teams in the top three of the events that came to an end on Sunday.
In Cervia, the home fans enthusiastically celebrated the first victory of the country’s new team of Tiziano Andreatta and Davide Benzi at the Fantini Club. The two joined forces at the start of the season and, after taking silver in Valencia, last week, in their first appearance together, moved one step up on the podium in front of their fans.
Undefeated in their five matches this weekend in Cervia, the Italians topped Germans Robin Sowa and Jonas Reinhardt 2-1 (21-16, 15-21, 17-15) in a tight gold medal match to take the title.
Beach Pro Tour Cervia Futures – Men
Danish Mads Mollgaard and Nicolai Hovmann took bronze in the Italian event after their straight-set (21-16, 21-14) victory over Germans Momme Lorenz and Tilo Riestschel.
The women’s tournament in Cervia was won by the most experienced team in the field, the one of two-time Olympian Karla Borger and German partner Hanna-Marie Schieder, who made it to the top of the podium in their fourth event together.
In order to capture the title in Cervia, the Germans downed the Czech Pavelková twins Katerina and Anna, who are the reigning U22 continental champions, in the three-set (24-22, 15-21, 15-11) gold medal match at the Fantini Club.
Beach Pro Tour Cervia Futures – Women
Slovenia took the third and last spot on the podium in the Italian event after Ziva Javornik and Tajda Lovsin defeated Hungarians Stefania Kun and Lilla Villam in the tie-breaker (21-18, 19-21, 16-14) in the bronze medal match.
Czechs triumph in Madrid
In Madrid, where only the men played, Czechs Tadeas Trousil and Matyas Dzavoronok were the winners of the event held at the Parque Deportivo Puerta de Hierro this week.
Starting their first season as partners in 2025, the two made it to the top of the podium in their first tournament together by winning five of their six matches in the Spanish capital. The last of them was the gold medal match, where they got the better of Norwegians Nils Ringøen and Even Aas, winning 2-0 (21-11, 21-19).
Spanish brothers Alejandro and Javier Huerta, who had won last weekend’s season-opening Valencia Futures, made a second-straight podium appearance in front of their home fans, overcoming Austrians Mathias Seiser and Laurenc Grössig 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) in the bronze medal match.
Next week, the women will play in Madrid, with matches going on from Thursday to Sunday. This will be the only event on the continent in the period.
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.