Lathi and Athiainen please home fans in Helsinki

Taru Lahti and Niina Athiainen made of the first international beach volleyball event held in their country’s capital a memorable one for Finland as they triumphed at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Helsinki Futures on Sunday.

The Finnish formed one of the four European teams that stood at the podium at the Hietaranta Beach at the conclusion of the event.

The top Finnish team competing internationally, Lahti and Athiainen pleased the home fans with a perfect campaign and the title, winning all five matches they played between Friday and Sunday.

Their last and most important triumph happened in the gold medal match, where they faced Australians Georgia Johnson and Jasmine Fleming and prevailed in the tie-breaker (18-21, 21-9, 15-12).

Stepping at the women’s podium in third place were Polish Katarzyna Kociolek and Marta Lodej, who topped Germans Melanie Paul and Hanna-Marie Schieder, the winners of last month’s Lille Futures, also in three sets (21-14, 12-21, 15-12).

Europe also took home two medals in the men’s event, but had to settle for silver and bronze after Austrians Mathias Seiser and Laurenc Grössig fell to Americans Troy Field and Evan Cory in the two-set (21-14, 21-12) final.

Norwegians Markus Mol and Jo Sunde made it to the podium for a second-straight week as, after taking the title in Ios last Saturday, they were third this time. The two overcame Austrians Timo Hammarberg and Tim Berger in the tie-breaker (21-15, 19-21, 15-12) to find their way to the podium in Helsinki.

The Belgian city of Leuven will be the next destination of Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Europe when the competition resumes, in two weeks, from July 13-16.

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.