Olympic medalist Plavins highlights Leuven Futures

The presence of Olympic medalist Martins Plavins will be one of the highlights of this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event in Leuven, Belgium, which will resume the series of Futures tournaments in Europe after a one-week break.

The eighth tournament of this kind held in the continent this season will be going on from Thursday to Sunday at the Monseigneur Ladeuzeplein, which also hosted international events in 2021 and 2022.

A three-time Olympian and a London 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, the 38-year-old Plavins is seeded second in the men’s main draw alongside partner Mihails Samoilovs. The two became partners last year, after Plavins recovered from a severe knee injury, and took bronze in a Futures event held in the Philippines in December. This will be their first time playing in a Futures tournament in Europe.

Plavins is the only Olympic medalist in the field, but not the only Olympian. Argentinean Julian Azaad, who’s seeded first with partner Maciel Bueno, has also been at the Games, representing his country at the Tokyo Olympics, in 2021.

Swiss Adrian Heidrich, who’s seeded fourth with Leo Dillier, was also in Tokyo two years ago and will battle for a medal this week in Belgium. The fourth and last Olympian in the men’s field is Plavins’ former partner Edgars Tocs, with who he got just one win away from another medal, finishing fourth in Tokyo – Tocs is seeded second in the qualifier with new partner Olivers Bulgacs.

The men’s event in Leuven will have 16 countries represented in the 28 teams entered, most of them coming from Europe – the exceptions are two duos from Argentina and one from Australia. The European contingent has five duos from hosts Belgium, four from neighbors the Netherlands, three from Latvia, two from Germany and Switzerland and one from each of Austria, Czechia, England, Finland, France, Hungary, Israel, Norway and Spain.

Leuven Futures – Match Schedule & Results

The women’s event in Leuven won’t feature Olympic medalists, but will have several teams that won medals in Beach Pro Tour Futures held in Europe over the last few months. Third-seeded Swiss Menia Bentele and Anna Lutz, who took bronze two weeks ago in Messina, Italy, are among them.

Seeded right below them in fourth place, Ukrainians Tetiana Lazarenko and Diana Lunina have been among the most successful teams in the continent at this level, having won gold in Spiez, Switzerland, and silver in Madrid, Spain.

Completing the list of Futures medalists entered to compete this week in Leuven are six players who will start in the qualifier: Swiss Shana Zobrist and Muriel Bossart, who took bronze in Madrid, Germans Melanie Paul and Hanna-Marie Schieder, who won gold in Lille, France, and Dutch Wies Bekhuis and Desy Poiesz, who claimed the title in Ios, Greece. The Dutch, however, will compete with different partners this time, with Bekhuis joining Kirster Bröring and Poiesz pairing with Leanne van Vegten.

The women’s tournament also has 28 teams, which will represent 17 nations – Europe will have five duos from Belgium, four from the Netherlands, three from Switzerland, two from Finland and one from each of France, Germany, Italy, Scotland, Spain and Ukraine.

There will be more international competition among the women, with Australia (2), Canada, Chile, China, Japan, Puerto Rico and the United States all sending teams to compete in Leuven this week.

The tournament begins on Thursday, with the qualifier, where the 16 teams in each gender will battle for the four remaining spots in the main draw. The main phase of the event will go from Friday to Sunday, when the medal matches will be played.

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 ranking points during the Olympic qualification period for the Paris 2024 Games.