Gold for Switzerland and Germany at WEVZA U18 Championships in Bilthoven

The WEVZA Beach Volleyball U18 Championships featured two intense days of competition at Irene Beach in Bilthoven. On July 23 and 24, fifteen boys’ teams and thirteen girls’ teams from six different Western European countries competed in the WEVZA tournament.

In addition to the U18 Western European Championship title, there was more at stake, since this tournament served as a first-round qualifier for the 2025 CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championships, which will take place in Italy in September. Therefore, for so many young talents, the WEVZA tournament was both a valuable opportunity to gain international experience and an exciting battle for podium places and European Championship tickets.

In the boys’ tournament, Livio Friedli and Martin Odermatt from Switzerland claimed gold after winning all their six matches. The second set of the gold medal match was particularly exciting, and the neutral spectator might have hoped for a tiebreak. The Swiss did not let it get that far, winning the second set 22-20 to secure gold. The German duo Jonathan Bungert and Filo Wüst took silver, while Ben Bockfeld and Luk Hansen, also from Germany, secured the bronze medal.

In the girls’ tournament, the German duo Anna-Chiara Reformat and Rika Dieckmann were cautiously labelled as pre-favourites beforehand, and they fully lived up to that expectation: the German girls went undefeated to win gold, losing only one set - in the final against Lente Thant and Simone Vervloet from Belgium, who therefore took silver. 

The Dutch duo Jara Both and Matilda de Groot, both only 15 years old, impressed the home crowd by winning bronze. The Dutch girls made it to the semi-finals with impressive results, where they also had to acknowledge the superiority of Reformat and Dieckmann. In the bronze medal match, Both and De Groot showed their resilience, defeating the German duo of Annalena Richter and Sandra Otte in three sets (17-21, 21-14, 17-15).

With their results, Switzerland and Germany (boys), and Germany and Belgium (girls) have secured a Main Draw spot at the CEV U18 European Championships, which will take place from September 11 to 14 in Corigliano Rossano, Italy.