Huerta brothers triumph at home at Madrid Futures
News
The title of the first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event held in Europe in 2023 remained at home after the Spanish brothers Javier and Alejandro Huerta triumphed in the tournament held in Madrid on Sunday.
The Spanish brothers overcame competition from 27 teams from 17 countries to please their home fans at the Puerta de Hierro Beach Volleyball centre, producing a remarkable start for the European teams that will get to compete in 15 Futures events in the continent until the beginning of October.
The top-seeded duo entering the Madrid Futures, the 26-year-old Javier and the 25-year-old Alejandro topped the podium of an international event together for the first time – the two have been partners in ten tournaments since 2018.
The Huertas counted on the support of the fans to come out on top in a tough gold medal match against Germans Paul Henning and Sven Winter. The home team started trailing, but came back to win 2-1 (17-21, 21-16, 15-9) and secure the title in front of their fans.
Javier Huerta“We need to thank the fans for coming here and supporting us. It felt great for us to play at home and feel the energy of the fans and our family and friends. We’re really excited that we managed to win at home and we want to thank the organizers for the great work they did.”
Spanish Beach Volleyball Player
Chinese Jie Li and Yanwei Wang avoided an all-European podium in Madrid as they took third place in the Spanish capital with their two-set (21-18, 21-16) victory over Germans Maximilian Just and Lui Wust in the bronze medal match.
The Puerta de Hierro Beach Volleyball centre will now get ready to welcome the women, who will also compete in the Madrid Futures from Thursday to Sunday. In the meantime, between Monday and Tuesday, the venue will host the 2023 CEV Beach Volleyball Nations Cup Pool E, with men's teams from Spain, Austria, Croatia, Lithuania and Slovenia competing for one spot in the Finals.
As many as 15 Beach Pro Tour Futures tournaments will be run by the CEV in Europe in close cooperation with Volleyball World and will 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.
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