Last events of the season take place in Castellón and Balıkesir this week
Futures in Europe
The Spanish city of Castellón and the Turkish town of Balıkesir will be the final destinations for Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Europe in 2024, with competition taking place at both locations this week, between Wednesday and Sunday.
In 2024, Europe hosted 23 Futures events from May to September, with 12 different countries welcoming tournaments during the summer.
Spain, which opened the season back in May with two events in Madrid, will also be involved in the last week of competition in the continent, with the beachfront C. Astrónom Francesc Aragó in Castellón welcoming a women’s tournament from Wednesday to Saturday.
Beach Pro Tour Castellón Futures
Crowned as the new Spanish champions earlier this month, top-seeded María Carro and Sofía González will try to take the host country to the podium this week in Castellón. Three other home teams will start in the main draw – Marta Carro/Nazaret Florian, Elba Páez/Daniela Andreu and Sara Segarra/Bella Huesca.
The Spanish duos will face strong competition from second-seeded Dutch Lisa Luini and Desy Poiesz, third-seeded Swiss Menia Bentele and Muriel Bossart and fourth-seeded Italians Maria Mancinelli and Aurora Mattavelli.
With 28 teams entered to play, the Castellón Futures will have competitors from 14 different countries – Spain (5), Switzerland (4), the United States (3), Czechia (2), Finland (2), France (2), the Netherlands (2), Sweden (2), Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Israel, Italy and Lithuania.
Balıkesir will welcome men and women at the Ayvalik Sarimsakli Plaji, with matches beginning on Thursday and ending on Sunday.
One of the attractions of the men’s event will be the presence of Italian Olympian Enrico Rossi. The 31-year-old blocker, who finished 19th at the Tokyo Games, in 2021, will get on the court with fellow veteran Marco Caminati – the two first played together from 2014 to 2019.
The tournament in Türkiye will also have the two younger brothers of Norwegian superstar Anders Mol playing together for the first time – 22-year-old Markus and 19-year-old Adrian are seeded seventh in the main draw.
As many as 28 men’s teams from 15 countries will be in action in Balıkesir – four from Türkiye, three from Norway, Poland and Ukraine, two from Bulgaria, Germany, Iran and Italy and one from Belgium, Denmark, Japan, Latvia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Trinidad & Tobago.
Beach Pro Tour Balıkesir Futures
The women’s tournament in Türkiye will have 26 sides, with 21 countries represented. The host country leads the way with three duos, followed by Azerbaijan, Czechia and Japan with two and Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States, with one each.
Ukrainians Yeva Serdiuk and Daria Romaniuk, who won gold in Warsaw two weeks ago, will be in contention for another title. They will have the top three seeded teams, Estonia’s Heleene Hollas/Liisa Remmelg, Kazakhstan’s Laura Kabulbekova/Nadezhda Ivanchenko and Austria’s Franziska Friedl/Lia Berger, as their main rivals.
The two tournaments will have similar schedules, with qualification taking place on the first day, pool play happening on the second, the elimination rounds unfolding on the third and the medal matches bringing them to a conclusion on the fourth.
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.