French and Dutch make it to the podium in Brazil
Beach Pro Tour
Men’s teams from France and the Netherlands represented Europe at the podium of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite event held in the Brazilian city of João Pessoa this weekend.
A new team in 2025, French Rémi Bassereau and Calvin Aye were second, taking their first medal together in an Elite event, while Dutch Olympians Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot ranked third.
Bassereau, a Paris 2024 Olympian, and Aye had a remarkable campaign in João Pessoa, starting on the qualifier to win six of their first seven matches and make it to the gold medal match, where they were defeated by Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci in straight sets (21-15, 27-25).
It was just the second medal won by the French in 2025, following a third-place finish earned at the Baden Challenge, in August.
Boermans and de Groot, on the other hand, added to what has been a prolific season in Brazil, winning their third medal in the country in 2025 – they earned gold in Brasília and bronze in Saquarema back in April. Besides that, the two also took bronze in Gstaad and Hamburg and now made it to the podium in third place for a third consecutive time on Sunday.
In the bronze medal match in João Pessoa, they defeated compatriots Alexander Brouwer and Steve van de Velde in straight sets (21-16, 21-13).
Yorick de Groot“It’s fantastic to win another medal, but also a bit bittersweet since this was the third straight semifinal we lost. We always play for gold, but, of course, it’s good that we were able to finish on a high.”
Dutch Beach Volleyball Player
In the women’s event, Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova and Switzerland’s Anouk Vergé-Dépré/Zoé Vergé-Dépré had the best results among the European teams, finishing fifth. USA’s Kelly Cheng/Molly Shaw and Terese Cannon/Megan Kraft and Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa and Ana Patrícia Ramos took gold, silver and bronze, respectively.
The Beach Pro Tour will have another week of action in Brazil, with Rio de Janeiro hosting the next event from September 24-28.