Europeans win four medals in Gstaad
Beach Pro Tour
European teams won four medals on Sunday in one of the most traditional stops of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, producing excellent results at the Elite tournament held in the Swiss Alps of Gstaad.
Duos from Latvia, hosts Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands made it to the podium in this week’s tournament, generating two silver and two bronze medals for European beach volleyball.
Latvian Olympians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova were Europe’s representatives in the women’s final in Gstaad, but they couldn’t handle Americans Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher, who triumphed 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) and won gold for a second-straight season in the Swiss city.
The bronze medal match reunited two Swiss teams and had the Vergé-Dépré sisters Anouk and Zoé prevailing over Tanja Hüberli and Leona Kernen 2-0 (21-17, 21-11). With the victory, the two became the first Swiss women’s team to make it to the podium in front of the country’s home fans in 12 years.
Anouk Vergé-Dépré“Winning a cowbell is a childhood dream for us. We both came out here as young kids and watched the matches from the stands. So, to win a cowbell is super emotional, even more with my sister.”
Swiss Beach Volleyball Player
On the men’s side, young Swedish Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson completed an amazing campaign that started on Wednesday in the qualifier with the silver medals around their necks. The reigning U22 European champions strongly challenged Qatari Olympic medalists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan in the gold medal match, but came up short, falling in two sets (21-19, 22-20).
Dutch Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot, who had triumphed in Gstaad back in 2021, confirmed the presence of a third European team in the men's podium with their 2-1 (21-23, 21-17, 15-10) victory over Brazilians André Loyola and George Wanderley. The podium appearance happened on the day of de Groot’s 25th birthday.
Yorick de Groot“Of course, I would prefer to play in the final, but to be able to compete on Sunday, on my birthday, it’s really special. The venue is incredible here, and to win bronze against a really strong Brazilian team is amazing.”
Dutch Beach Volleyball Player
The next Elite event scheduled for the 2025 Beach Pro Tour season will be the one in Montréal, Canada, from August 13-17.