Lithuania and Norway claim U22 European titles

Lithuania, among the women, and Norway, on the men’s side, are the new European beach volleyball champions in the U22 Age Group. Teams from the two countries triumphed in the 2023 edition of the U22 European Championships, which came to an end in Timişoara, Romania, on Saturday.

Daniele Kvedaraite, 21, and Ariana Rudkovskaja, 20, made history for Lithuania, taking their country to its first title in the event on the women’s side while Markus Mol, 21, and Jo Sunde, 20, took Norway back to the top of the men’s podium for the third time – and the first since 2016.

Kvedaraite, who was representing Lithuania in a continental Age Group tournament for the first time, and Rudkovskaja, who has played in seven events of this caliber since 2018, displayed great chemistry in their first tournament partners, winning six of the seven matches they played this week in Timişoara to secure the historic title.

In the gold medal match held at the CSM Timişoara Sport Facility, the Lithuanians defeated Czechs Kylie Neuschaeferova and Marketa Svozilova in the tie-breaker (27-25, 13-21, 15-13) to become the champions.

Spanish Sofia Izuzquiza and Ana Vergara, who claimed silver in the U18 and U20 European Championships, took their country to the podium in third place. The two overcame Latvians Liva Ēbere, a silver medalist at last year’s U20 European Championship, and Anete Namike, an U20 European champion in 2020, in straight sets (21-15, 21-15) in the bronze medal match to make it to the podium together.

CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship 2023

The men’s final had a strongly dominant performance by Mol and Sunde, who gave no chance to Germans Maximilian Just and Lui Wüst, securing a two-set (21-14, 21-14) win in just over 31 minutes. The Norwegians had taken silver in the 2021 U20 European Championship.

The victory made Markus follow in the footsteps of his older brother, reigning Olympic and world champion Anders Mol, who won the same title with Christian Sørum back in 2016 - Sørum also triumphed in the 2014 edition of the event with Runar Sannarnes.

Bronze in Timişoara went to Latvians Kristians Fokerots and Oliver Bulgacs, who topped reigning U20 European champions Tim Berger and Timo Hammarberg of Austria in the two-set (21-18, 21-16) third-place match. It was the third continental medal for the 18-year-old Fokerots, who took gold and silver in the U18 and U22 Age Groups last season respectively.

Next in line is the U20 European Championship, which will be held in Riga, Latvia, from August 17-20.