Europeans get two bronzes at Haikou Challenge

European beach volleyball was represented at the podium of this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge event held in Haikou, China, as duos from France and Italy took bronze in the women’s and men’s tournaments, respectively.

Among the women, Paris Olympians Lézana Placette and Alexia Richard finished in third place, winning their first medals on the Beach Pro Tour. On the men’s side, Italians Gianluca Dal Corso and Marco Viscovich stepped on the podium at the Challenge level for the first time in their careers.

Placette, 26, and Richard, 28, returned to international competition for the first time since they represented their country at the Paris Olympics, in August, and had a long journey in Haikou, starting the tournament in the qualifier and winning six consecutive matches to make it to the Final Four.

On Sunday, they fell to Americans Toni Rodriguez and Molly Shaw in the semifinals, but recovered a few hours later, beating Chinese Jie Dong and Xinxin Wang 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 15-11) in the bronze medal match to secure their first medals on the Beach Pro Tour. The home team of Chen Xue and Jinjin Zeng took gold.

In the men’s tournament, the 23-year-old Italians had a three-match winning streak to make it to the semifinals, where they lost to eventual champions Cody Caldwell and Evan Cory, of the United States. In the all-European bronze medal match, Dal Corso and Viscovich overcame Germans Phillip Huster and Maximilian Just in straight sets (21-19, 21-19) to win their first medal in a Challenge event.

The Italians were poised to secure a strong result at the Challenge level after having tremendous success in Futures tournaments held in Europe over the last two years. They won six medals in the period, with two golds, one silver and three bronzes.

The Beach Pro Tour will remain in Asia for another week with the Indian city of Chennai hosting the next Challenge event of the season, which will have matches going on from Thursday to Sunday.