Europeans take home all six medals at Goa Challenge
Beach Pro Tour
The Indian city of Goa, the first in the country to host a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event, felt the strength of European beach volleyball as teams from the continent took home all six medals available in the Challenge tournament that came to an end on Sunday.
The first Beach Pro Tour Challenge event of the season to have teams from the same continent occupying all spots at both the men’s and women’s podium, the Goa Challenge had duos from Austria, England, Germany, Spain and Switzerland claiming medals.
The women’s event in India had the victory of Swiss Olympic medalists Joana Mäder and Anouk Vergé-Dépré, their first since Mäder returned from a major shoulder injury that sidelined her for eight months.
In the gold medal match, the winners of the 2020 CEV EuroBeachVolley overcame Germans Karla Borger and Sandra Ittlinger in straight sets (21-19, 21-16), returning to the top of the podium at the international level for the first time since 2019.
Joana Mäder“We felt that this week we were able to play our game. We had our backs against the wall at times, but remained calm and kept fighting. Winning tournaments is always nice and it gives you so much. We aren’t coming from our best moment, in past tournaments we didn’t have the strength to turn things around. This victory gives us a lot of confidence for the upcoming events.”
Swiss Beach Volleyball Player
This year’s EuroBeachVolley silver medalists, Spanish Tania Moreno and Daniela Álvarez earned their first Beach Pro Tour medals of the season with their sweep (21-10, 21-16) of Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphornrapat and Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee in the bronze medal match.
The men’s tournament in Goa ended with a big win from Austrians Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz, their first since they became partners, earlier this year. The two, who started the event in the qualifier and won seven of their eight matches in India this week, topped Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira in a dramatic three-set (18-21, 21-16, 17-15) battle to take gold.
Moritz Pristauz“What a crazy tournament. To start in the qualifier and end it with a gold medal, that’s not something that happens every day. We’re very happy, this is my first gold medal on the Beach Pro Tour and it feels so good. We were down 14-9 on the tie-breaker, but turned things around and won. That’s incredible.”
Austrian Beach Volleyball Player
The bronze medal match in Goa ended up not taking place as the English Bello twins Joaquin and Javier earned their first medal in a Beach Pro Tour Challenge event with their forfeit win over Germans Lukas Pfretzschner and Sven Winter.
After Goa, the Beach Pro Tour remains in Asia as the continent will also host the next Challenge event of the season, with the Chinese city of Haikou welcoming men’s and women’s teams from November 2-5.