Olympic champions in action at Nations Cup in Lillesand

After a one-week break for Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour competition, the 2023 CEV Beach Volleyball Nations Cup is set to resume this week, when the final two spots in the event’s Finals this year will be determined.

The next men’s and women’s teams to book their tickets to the Finals will come from the Norwegian city of Lillesand, which will host men’s and women’s competitions in Pool A at the Kokkenes between Tuesday and Thursday.

The reigning Nations Cup champions among the men, Norway will try to dominate the event at home with their top teams of Anders Mol/Christian Sørum and Hendrik Mol/Mathias Berntsen in order to give the first step to defend the title they won in Vienna in 2022. They will compete against Bulgaria, England, Estonia and Slovakia.

Mol and Sørum will return to the court to represent their country at the Nations Cup just two days after they won their second gold medal at the Beach Pro Tour in 2023, winning the Ostrava Elite16 event.

From the four challengers, England look like the best-equipped to pose some sort of resistance for the Beach Volley Vikings with both of their teams – Javier Bello/Joaquin Bello and Issa Batrane/Frederick Bialokoz – having some relevant international experience.

Estonia won’t count on their top team of Mart Tiisaar/Kusti Nolvak, with the duos of Kaur Kais/Rasmus Meius and Urmas Piik/Dimitriy Korotkov representing the country at this week’s event in Norway.

The Bulgarian team will be formed by Ivan Latunov/Dimitar Kalchev and Dimitar Mehandzhiyski/Stefan Vartigov while Slovakia will put their trust in Lubos Nemec/Marek Jany and Kamil Pavlinsky/Martin Petro.

The women’s event will reunite teams from Norway, Germany, Denmark and Türkiye, with the top-seeded Germans stand out as the favorites to finish in first place.

The Germans will send some of their strong teams to compete in Lillesand this week, with 2022 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship bronze medallists Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann joining Rio 2016 Olympic champion Laura Ludwig and former German volleyball national team star Louisa Lippmann in the tournament.

Norway’s top team of Sunniva Helland-Hansen and Emilie Olimstad enter the tournament with good momentum following their second-place finish at the King & Queen of the Court event held in Hamburg, Germany, two weeks ago. They will play alongside Ingrid Lunde/Kirstine Garder.

Denmark will be represented by Clara Windeleff/Sofia Bisgaard and Pia Hove/Astrid Mellmølle while Türkiye will have Merve Celebi/Esra Cetin and Merve Nezir/Asli Tecimer wearing their uniform in Lillesand.

The seven pool winners and the host country will compete in the 2023 Nations Cup Finals. Up to this point, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden have qualified among the men, while the Netherlands, Poland, Latvia, Switzerland and France are guaranteed in the women’s event.

Created in 2022, the Nations Cup brings added weight in 2023 and 2024, serving as the European pathway in the qualification system for the beach volleyball tournament of the Paris 2024 Olympics – the countries that win the 2024 Finals among the men and the women will each earn a spot in the Games.

The event has a different competition format, promoting ‘country vs. country’ battles. Each nation is represented by two teams and the duels take place in a best-of-three format, with the decider, if needed, being a 15-point golden set.