Nine European nations claim Beach Pro Tour Futures medals

European teams collected nine out of 12 potential medals this week at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, with teams from nine different countries in the continent stepping at the podiums of the men’s and women’s Futures tournaments held in Budapest, Hungary, and Cortegaça, Portugal, over the weekend.

The continent found great success with its men’s teams as the podiums in both the Hungarian capital and the Portuguese city were entirely filled by European teams from the continent, who have now achieved 14 medal sweeps at the Futures level in 2022.

In Budapest, Lithuanians Audrius Knasas and Patrikas Stankevicius secured their second title in the season with their straight-set (21-16, 21-15) victory over Ukrainians Denys Denysenko and Vladyslav Iemelianchyk in the gold medal match. The two had also won gold two weeks ago in Myslowice, Poland.

A duo from Poland, formed by Piotr Janiak and Jedrzej Brozyniak, claimed bronze in the Hungarian capital. The team didn’t have to go on the court for the bronze medal match as Czechs Jan Oliva and Tadeas Trousil, who had forfeited their semifinal duel against the Ukrainians due to injury, didn’t recover on time.

In Cortegaça, gold went to the French Aye brothers Quincy and Calvin, who denied the victory of the home team of Joao Pedrosa and Hugo Campos. The duo from France emerged victorious in the tie-breaker (21-12, 14-21, 15-13).

The bronze medal match also wasn’t contested as Germans Philipp Huster and Simon Pfretzschner had to forfeit both of their final matches in Portugal due to injury, resulting in an automatic third-place finish for the English twins Joaquin and Javier Bello.

The women’s podium in Cortegaça had Germans Nele Schmitt and Melanie Paul in second place. The two fell to Chinese Jie Dong and Yuan Lvwen in the two-set (21-16, 21-15) gold medal match. Czechs Miroslava Dunarova and Daniela Resova took bronze after they defeated Latvians Anete Namike and Liva Ebere in the tie-breaker (21-18, 20-22, 16-14).

In Budapest, Austrians Katharina Holzer and Franziska Friedl were the only European team on the women’s podium after their bronze medal match against Czechs Michala Frank and Michaela Brinkova was stopped because of an injury. The all-Chinese gold medal match had Jinjin Zeng and Xinxin Wang topping Xinyi Xia and Meimei Lin in the tie-breaker (19-21, 22-20, 15-13).

Next week, no Futures events will be held in Europe because of the CEV EuroBeachVolley. The calendar will resume with two men-only events in Montpellier, France, and Baden, Austria, from August 24-28.