Led by the home teams, Europeans claim all six medals in play in Baden
Futures in Europe
The six medals awarded at this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event in Baden, Austria, will not leave Europe as teams from the continent occupied all three spots at the podiums of the event, which came to an end on Sunday.
The host country was the only one to win multiple medals, taking silver and bronze in the men’s tournament at the Weilburgpark, while duos from Latvia, Belgium, Estonia and Ukraine were the others who earned silverware this weekend.
Austria was represented by the 2022 U20 European champions Tim Berger and Timo Hammarberg in the men's final, but the two couldn’t handle Latvians Kristians Fokerots and Gustavs Auziņš, the 2022 U19 world champions, who triumphed in two sets (21-19, 21-19) to celebrate their first title together at the senior level.
The dispute for bronze delivered another medal to hosts Austria and confirmed the European podium sweep, with Laurenz Leitner and Philipp Waller topping Australians Soloman Bushby and Benn Hood in straight sets (21-15, 21-14).
The women’s event, which ended on Saturday, had duos from three different countries at the podium. The gold medals went to Belgians Sarah Cools and Lisa Van Den Vonder, who overcame Estonian qualifiers Heleene Hollas and Liisa Remmelg in the tie-breaker (19-21, 21-15, 17-15) to secure their second title in a Futures event – they also won in Mallorca, in 2023.
Ukrainians Maryna Hladun and Tetiana Lazarenko finished third following their two-set (21-15, 21-18) victory over Czechs Valerie Dvorníková and Anna Pospisilova, winning bronze for a second-straight week and repeating the result they recently had in Ios.
Next week, the action will take place in Rakvere, which will host a Futures event from Wednesday to Saturday and will become just the second Estonian city to stage an international beach volleyball tournament.
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.