Hosts Switzerland make the doubles in Spiez
Futures in Europe
Homecourt advantage proved to be of great value for Switzerland on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour as teams from the host country won gold and silver in both genders in the Futures event held in Spiez this weekend.
Flanking the Swiss teams on the podium at the lakefront Spiezerbucht on Sunday were German women and Czech men, creating a perfect weekend for European teams, which took home all six medals in play in the event.
Held on Saturday, the women’s gold medal match was the one expected by the Swiss fans as it put the host country’s top teams against each other. In the end, Paris Olympic bronze medalist Tanja Hüberli and her 19-year-old partner Leona Kernen, a Spiez native, defeated the Olympian Vergé-Dépré sisters Anouk and Zoé 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) to take the title.
Leona Kernen“It's incredibly cool to be able to play a tournament here in my hometown, where I grew up. And to be able to win in front of my friends and family is really nice. The final was a hard-fought match against Anouk and Zoé, and it was fun.”
Swiss Beach Volleyball Player
Beach Pro Tour Spiez Futures – Women
The third team to make it to the podium in Spiez also featured an Olympian as Karla Borger, who represented Germany at both the Rio 2016 and the Tokyo 2020 Games, and partner Hanna-Marie Schieder downed Czechs Valerie Dvorníková and Karin Zolnercikova 2-0 (21-19, 21-12) in the bronze medal match.
Heidrich and Jordan win the men's title
The men's tournament in Spiez also had two home teams in the final and was the stage for the first title of the new duo formed by Tokyo 2020 Olympian Adrian Heidrich and partner Jonathan Jordan, who played together for just the fourth time this week.
In the gold medal match, the 30-year-old Heidrich faced his former partner, Leo Dillier, and his new teammate Marco Krattiger. With a dominant performance, Jordan and him secured a two-set (21-19, 21-14) victory to find their way to the top of the podium.
Adrian Heidrich"It was almost like a home tournament for us, and the atmosphere was fantastic on Sunday. We didn't get off to a great start, but we were able to improve steadily and push ourselves up to the final. Being able to reward our performance with gold is, of course, fantastic."
Swiss Beach Volleyball Player
Beach Pro Tour Spiez Futures – Men
In the bronze medal match, Czechs Tadeas Trousil and Matyas Dzavoronok downed Polish Jedrzej Brozyniak and Piotr Janiak in two sets (21-19, 21-14) to claim the last spot on the podium.
Next week, the Beach Pro Tour returns to Italy with the city of Battipaglia hosting a double-gender event from May 29-June 1.
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.