Pools drawn for #BeachNationsCup preliminary phase

Waiting for the eagerly anticipated showdown coming up mid-June with the Final in Jurmala, Latvia, where a much-coveted ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympics will be at stake in each gender, the Beach Volley Nations Cup 2024 will start in mid-May with the preliminary phase involving teams from National Federations that had finished in second, third or fifth place in the spring of 2023. Double-gender events will be taking place in Vilnius (Lithuania), Balikesir (Türkiye), and Madrid (Spain) – with the remaining men’s and women’s pool to be held in Hamburg, Germany, and Croatia (at a venue TBD). 

The four pool winners in each gender will join the National Federations that emerged victorious in the preliminary phase of the 2023 edition plus hosts Latvia for the final stage of the Olympic-qualifying competition.

A Drawing of Lots was organised on Monday afternoon at the home of European Volleyball in Luxembourg City to define the composition of the preliminary phase four pools in each gender. After drawing Croatia as the still missing organiser in the women’s competition, all other National Federations were drawn across Pools A-B-C-D according to the results they had achieved in 2023 (for this reason, those that had finished second, third and fifth were each grouped together to account for three draws) and to the serpentine system.

With the fulfilment of the Olympic dream at stake and many up-and-coming teams wishing to establish themselves on the international stage, there is a lot to look forward to this coming May when the preliminary phase takes place and National Federations will be battling to secure their journey to Jurmala. The sense of anticipation is already mounting with that unique side to it that stems from the perspective of making the journey to Paris – where Beach Volleyball played by the iconic Eiffel Tower is going to be among the absolute highlights of the Games of the XXXIII Summer Olympiad!