Poland and Denmark at the top in Madrid
U20 European Championship
Poland and Denmark were added to the list of beach volleyball continental champions in the 2025 season after teams from the countries triumphed in the CEV U20 European Championship, which came to an end on Sunday in Madrid.
The tournament was held at the Parque Deportivo Puerta de Hierro, in the Spanish capital, and reunited teams from 32 different nations on the continent, which competed for four days for the gold medals.
In the women’s event, 18-year-old Zuzanna Kudlik and 19-year-old Julia Radelczuk returned Poland to the top of the podium following the victory of Malgorzata Ciezkowska and Urszula Lunio in 2023.
Playing together for the first time in their international careers this week, the Polish duo won seven consecutive matches without dropping sets on their way to taking the title in Madrid. In the last of them, the tournament’s gold medal match, they swept (25-23, 21-16) French Romane Sobezalz and Saofé Duval.
Reigning U18 European champions Lia Berger and Lilli Hohenauer of Austria completed the podium after they downed Latvians Līva Ēbere and Renāte Krūklīte in straight sets (21-19, 21-8) in the bronze medal match.
CEV U20 European Championship – Women
The men’s winners, 19-year-old Danish Andreas Brinck and Villads Napier got to celebrate a continental title in Madrid for the second time in their careers after triumphing in the U18 European Championship held in the city in 2023 and continue to emerge as one of the most promising teams on the continent.
Brinck and Napier also won the title with an undefeated campaign of seven victories, but they lost two sets over the week, one of them in Sunday’s gold medal match, where they overcame Finland’s Veeti Viljamaa and Aleksi Hänninen in the tie-breaker (21-18, 21-23, 15-11).
Hungarians Bence Tari and Ákos Veress also made it to the podium in Madrid, beating Italians Andrea Sanguanini and Matteo Marchesan for bronze with a three-set (16-21, 21-18, 15-11) victory.
CEV U20 European Championship – Men
The last of the three age group continental tournaments programmed for the 2025 season, the U18 European Championship will take place in Corigliano Rossano, Italy, from September 11-14.