Olympic champions Åhman and Hellvig to play in Malmö this week

Reigning Olympic champions David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig will make a rare appearance in a Volleyball World Beach Pro Four Futures event this week as the Swedish stars are set to compete in front of their home fans in Malmö.

Set to take place between Thursday and Sunday, the Malmö event, which will only see the men get on the court, will be one of three Futures tournaments taking place in the continent this week alongside a women’s event in Kraków, Poland, and a double-gender competition in Jurmala, Latvia, which will start one day earlier, on Wednesday.

The reigning Olympic champions and the number three team in the FIVB World Rankings, Åhman and Hellvig will play in a tournament of this level for the first time since 2020, when they triumphed in an FIVB World Tour one-star stop in Montpellier, France.

It will also be the first time the two play an international tournament in Sweden after their incredible rise, which culminated at last year’s Paris Olympics and had them winning back-to-back editions of the CEV EuroBeachVolley in 2022 and 2023. In 2019, they played in a World Tour one-star event in Göteborg, finishing fifth.

Beach Pro Tour Malmö Futures – Men

Besides the Olympic champions, hosts Sweden will have three other teams beginning in the main draw of the tournament held at the Ribersborgsstranden - Jacob Hölting Nilsson/Elmer Andersson, Stefan Andreasson/Anton Andersson and Axel Algulin/Teddie Almblad Engvall.

As many as 28 teams are entered in the event, with 16 countries represented – Sweden (6), Germany (3), Austria (2), Canada (2), Norway (2), Poland (2), Spain (2), Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Women play in Kraków

Following the same timeline as Malmö, the Futures event held at the Jeziorański Square, in Kraków, will reunite 28 women’s teams. Both tournaments will have the qualifier on Thursday, the main draw between Friday and Saturday and the medal matches on Sunday.

As many as 17 countries will send their teams to compete in Kraków this week. Hosts Poland account for six of the 28 duos entered, with Czechia having three, Austria, Spain, Sweden and the United States fielding two and Australia, Brazil, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Ukraine one each.

Beach Pro Tour Kraków Futures – Women

Seeded second in the main draw, Julia Radelczuk and Natalia Okla form the highest-ranked Polish team entering the event. The Ukrainian twins Inna and Iryna Makhno, who already appeared in four editions of the EuroBeachVolley, are the most experienced players in the field.

European champions at home in Jurmala

The double-gender tournament in Jurmala will be one day longer, beginning on Wednesday, and will also have an extremely high level, with the top Latvian teams, which both have EuroBeachVolley titles under their belts, signing up to play in front of their home fans at the Beach Sport Centre at Majori Beach this week.

Two-time European champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova lead the women’s field. The two, who represented Latvia in the last two Olympics and won the EuroBeachVolley in 2019 and 2022, couldn’t pass on the opportunity of competing in front of their home fans and will play in a Futures event for the first time in their careers.

Their main competitors this week should be Estonians Liisa Remmelg and Heleene Hollas and their country’s young team of Līva Ēbere and Deniela Konstantinova.

Beach Pro Tour Jurmala Futures – Women

With 32 teams in the women’s entry list, the Jurmala Futures will have 18 countries contending for the title. Hosts Latvia lead the way with seven teams, followed by Estonia (3), Finland (3), Czechia (2), Lithuania (2), Sweden (2), the United States (2), Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands and Scotland.

The men’s event in Jurmala will have the presence of the reigning European champions Martins Plavins and Kristian Fokerots, who won the continental title last year, in the Hague, the Netherlands.

Norwegians Nils Ringøen and Even Aas are seeded second, with Czechs Jan Dumek and David Westphal appearing in third place ahead of the start of the tournament.

Also featuring an expanded field of 32 teams, the men’s event will see duos from 13 different countries in action over the week. Latvia will have 11 tandems, Germany, Norway and Poland three, Estonia, Finland and Lithuania two and Costa Rica, Czechia, England, Israel, Japan and Serbia one.

Beach Pro Tour Jurmala Futures – Men

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.