Europeans win nine medals in Warsaw and Leuven

Four European nations claimed medals at this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures events as duos from Poland, Ukraine, Germany and the Netherlands combined for nine medals (two gold, four silver, three bronze) in the tournaments that took place in Warsaw, Poland, and Leuven, Belgium.

Hosts Poland had a lot to celebrate in the nation’s capital Warsaw as they saw teams from the country win as many as four medals at the Monta Beach Volleyball Club and make a podium sweep in the men’s tournament.

The victory among of the men came with Michal Kadziola and Marcin Ociepski, who defeated compatriots Piotr Janiak and Jedrzej Brozyniak in straight sets (21-16, 21-18) in the gold medal match.

Milosz Kruk and Mikolaj Miszczuk topped Lithuanians Robert Juchnevic and Artur Vasiljev in the tie-breaker (21-12, 19-21, 15-10) in the bronze medal match to confirm the all-Polish podium.

The women’s tournament had reigning #EuroBeachVolleyU20 and U21 world champions Anhelina Khmil and Tetiana Lazarenko as the winners. The Ukrainians overcame Poles Katarzyna Kociolek and Marta Lodej 2-1 (21-17, 18-21, 15-10) to claim gold in Warsaw.

Bronze went to Chinese Lvwen Yuan and Jie Dong, who defeated the Swedish twins Sanna and Tina Thurin in three sets (21-18, 18-21, 15-11) to finish in third place.

In Leuven, Ukrainians Valentyna Davidova and Diana Lunina came very close to gold, but were defeated by China’s Xinyi Xia and Meimei Lin in the tie-breaker (12-21, 21-13, 15-5) and had to settle for silver.

Dutch Brecht Piersma and Wies Bekhuis stepped on the podium by their side after they downed Czechs Martina Williams and Anna Pospisilova in the two-set (21-15, 21-13) bronze medal match.

Top-seeded Argentineans Bautista Amieva and Leo Aveiro secured the men’s title in the Belgian event after they defeated German qualifiers Philipp Huster and Benedikt Sagstetter 2-1 (17-21, 21-10, 15-13) in the final.

Ukrainians Vladyslav Iemelianchyk and Denys Denysenko claimed bronze following their 2-1 (16-21, 24-22, 13-) victory over French Liam Patte and Timothée Platre.

Next week will be another busy one for European teams as the continent will host two other Beach Pro Tour Futures events. One of them will take place in Myslowice, Poland, and the other one in Ljubljana, Slovenia.