German and Austrian men take gold in Krakow and Sveti Vlas
Futures in Europe
With the golden shine of first-place finishes obtained by men’s teams from Germany and Austria, European beach volleyball duos took home six of the nine medals in play in Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures events held in Krakow, Poland, and Sveti Vlas, Bulgaria, over the weekend.
Germans Robin Sowa and Maximilian Just led a European men’s medal sweep in Krakov, while Austrians Christopher Dressler and Maximilian Trummer were the most successful among the three duos from the continent that won medals in the double-gender Sveti Vlas Futures.
Sowa, 25, and Just, 21, secured their first international title as partners with a campaign of five wins and a loss in Krakow, which ended with a dominant two-set (21-8, 21-13) win over the home team of Jakub Krzeminski and Szymon Pietraszek at the Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Square on Sunday.
The bronze medal match in Krakow, which also featured two European duos, had the Belgian Vandecaveye brothers Louis and Gilles prevailing over Italians Manuel Alfieri and Tiziano Andreatta in the tie-breaker (21-19, 19-21, 15-11) to take bronze and step on the podium together on the Beach Pro Tour for the third time.
Dressler and Trummer go undefeated in Sveti Vlas
The first-ever Beach Pro Tour event in Bulgaria, this week’s Sveti Vlas Futures ended with seasoned Austrians Dressler and Trummer at the top of the podium after they produced an unfedeated campaign of five wins over three days at the Venid Beach.
The two, who dropped a single set over the week in the event, kept their excellent form going in the gold medal match, where they topped Dutch Mees Sengers and Dirk Boehlé to win 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) and celebrate their first victory as partners.
Europe had a chance to perform a men’s medal sweep in Bulgaria too, but Austrians Florian Schnezter and Lorenz Petutschnig couldn’t handle top-seeded Americans Hagen Smith and Logan Webber, losing 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) to finish fourth.
Beach Pro Tour Sveti Vlas Futures
The continent was represented on the women’s podium by Dutch Brecht Piersma and Wies Bekhuis, who made finals in back-to-back weeks after winning in Spiez last Sunday, but this time had to settle for silver after their three-set (24-22, 17-21, 15-8) loss to Americans Carly Kan and Madelyne Anderson in the gold medal match.
Another American team, the one of Olympian Brooke Sweat and Kennedy Coakley, denied another European duo access to the podium as they defeated French Elsa Descamps and Marine Kinna in the tie-breaker (21-10, 17-21, 15-10) in the bronze medal match.
The Beach Pro Tour will be back in Krakow next week, this time with a women’s event, which will go from June 13-16.
The Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Europe are run by the CEV in close cooperation with Volleyball World and provide teams from the continent with several opportunities to compete and gain valuable international ranking points.