Hammarberg and Berger triumph at the final event in the continent
Futures in Europe
The season of Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Europe came to an end on Sunday in great fashion, with three teams from the continent standing at the podium in Mallorca, Spain, the city that hosted the last men’s event of the year this week.
The 17th and final stop of a series of events that took place in Europe over the last five months, the Mallorca Futures were the stage of the first victory of Austrian prospects Timo Hammarberg and Tim Berger on the Beach Pro Tour.
The 19-year-old Hammarberg and the 18-year-old Berger, who together took gold at last year’s CEV U20 EuroBeachVolley, topped legendary Latvian Aleksandrs Samoilovs, a three-time Olympian, and his younger brother Mihails in straight sets (21-18, 22-20) in the gold medal match to take the title at the Hotel & Sport Center Na Taconera.
The Austrians won all their five matches in Mallorca this week, knocking out teams from Spain, Brazil, Türkiye, Lithuania and Latvia while dropping just two sets.
It was the first time the young Austrians, who made their EuroBeachVolley debut earlier this year in Vienna, stepped at the top of the podium together on the Beach Pro Tour – Hammarberg had taken gold in a Futures event in The Hague, the Netherlands, with Laurenc Grössig at the end of 2022.
Beach Pro Tour Mallorca Futures
The bronze medals of the tournament went to Lithuanians Arnas Rumsevicius and Tomas Stasevicius, who defeated Spanish brothers Alejandro and Javier Huerta in the tie-breaker (21-17, 19-21, 15-11) and frustrated the home fans who expected to see a local team at the podium.
It was the first international medal won by the Lithuanians as partners. Before the Mallorca Futures, they had a fourth-place finish in Warsaw, Poland, last month, as their best result on the Beach Pro Tour.
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 ranking points during the Olympic qualification period for the Paris 2024 Games.