Norway continue on top and Ukraine rise with continental titles
EuroBeachVolley
The 33rd edition of the CEV EuroBeachVolley came to an end on Sunday, capping off a week of elite beach volleyball played in an exciting atmosphere in Düsseldorf, and the final chapters of the tournament brought different messages about the sport’s landscape on the continent.
While on the men’s side Anders Mol and Christian Sørum, the most successful team in European beach volleyball history, consolidated Norway as the country with the most EuroBeachVolley gold medals, Maryna Hladun and Tetiana Lazarenko’s victory among the women was somewhat of a surprise, but reflected Ukraine’s incredible rise in the continent in the last few years.
With Mol and Sørum’s triumph, Norway now have seven gold medals among the men, two more than second-placed Germany. Five of them were won by the Beach Volley Vikings, who topped the podium in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2025 and went undefeated in all five campaigns, amassing 31 victories.
A third-place finish in 2022, a fifth-place in 2023 and an absence in 2024 kept the Norwegians off the top of the podium for three years, but they continued to be one of the top teams in the world in the period, and it was clear that it was just a matter of time until they regained the continental crown.
It happened in Düsseldorf, where the Tokyo Olympic champions played some of their best volleyball in recent years and won all six matches with just two sets dropped to earn the right to lift the EuroBeachVolley trophy again.
Mol and Sørum had a smooth ride in Pool A and confirmed their position as the top team in the pool to sweep Latvia’s Ardis Bedritis/Arturs Rinkevics and Germany’s Benedikt Sagstetter/Jonas Sagstetter and advance.
The Vikings went to meet the two teams that won gold in the three years they didn’t, and the first of those encounters happened in the Round of 16, where they dropped their first set in the tournament, but took down defending champions Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots of Latvia.
The Norwegians were in control in their next two elimination matches in Düsseldorf and handled both young Austrians Tim Berger and Timo Hammarberg in the quarterfinals and Dutch veterans Alexander Brouwer and Steven van de Velde in the semifinals in straight sets, setting up their first continental final with Swedish stars David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig, who won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023.
In the gold medal match, the Vikings saw themselves behind for the first and only time in the tournament after going down in the first set, but recovered to beat the Olympic champions in the tie-breaker and become the first players in EuroBeachVolley history to win five gold medals.
The rise of Ukrainian women
On the women’s event, the victory of Hladun and Lazarenko, which made of Ukraine the tenth different nation to win gold in the EuroBeachVolley, may be considered a surprise to many, but those watching the country’s progress over the last few years certainly noticed that their first women’s medal in the event shouldn’t take long to happen after Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik took bronze in the men’s side in 2023.
Since 2022, when Lazarenko won gold in the U20 EuroBeachVolley with Anhelina Khmil, Ukrainian women have accumulated as many as 21 medals on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. If in the first years most of the country’s success came in Futures events, Hladun and Lazarenko have been able to contend at a higher level recently, taking gold in two Challenge events in the last eight months.
Another sign of the rise of Ukrainian women in international beach volleyball was given less than a month ago, when the country advanced to the final of the CEV Beach Nations Cup. The Ukrainians fell to international powerhouse Germany and missed the chance of winning their first major continental title, but they didn’t have to wait much longer for it, as just two weeks later, Hladun and Lazarenko had the EuroBeachVolley trophy in their hands. The two had to play four tie-breakers, but won all six matches they played in Düsseldorf, starring in the most important moment of Ukrainian beach volleyball history so far.
In pool play, they overcame Germany’s Paula Schurholz/Janne Uhl in straight sets and France’s Lézana Placette/Alexia Richard in the tie-breaker, making it to the next round as the top team in Pool G.
The Round of 16 brought another three-setter, this one against Germany’s Linda Bock/Louisa Lippmann, and while their victory against the Netherlands’ Mila Konink/Raisa Schoon in the quarterfinals happened in two sets, they were two close ones.
In the semifinals, Hladun and Lazarenko started behind, but came back to beat Spanish Olympians Daniela Álvarez and Tania Moreno and make history, securing the first. Ukrainian medal in the EuroBeachVolley. The same happened in the gold medal match, where they downed French Clémence Vieira and Aline Chamereau in the tie-breaker to take Ukraine to the top for the first time.