Silver and bronze for European women at Jurmala Challenge
Beach Pro Tour
The first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge event held in Europe in the 2023 season ended with two women’s teams from the continent standing at the podium in Jurmala, Latvia, on Sunday.
Europe sent two teams to the women’s semifinals and saw both of them deliver medals, with Swiss Zoé Vergé-Dépré and Esmée Böbner claiming silver and home favorites Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova securing bronze.
Zoé, 25, and Esmée, 23, took their remarkable 2023 season to another level in Jurmala, securing their first medal on the Beach Pro Tour. The Swiss, who had their first semifinal appearance two months ago in Brazil, won five straight matches in Jurmala before falling to Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson in two sets (21-17, 21-17) in the final.
Zoé Vergé-Dépré“Every time you lose a final it’s disappointing because when you make it that far, you want to win gold. But it was a great tournament for us. It was our first final and our first podium and we’re incredibly happy with it.”
Swiss Beach Volleyball Player
Reigning European champions Tina and Anastasija fell to Melissa and Brandie in the semifinals and couldn’t play the final in their home tournament, but recovered to win bronze by defeating Brazilians Tainá Bigi and Victoria Lopes in the tie-breaker (21-11, 20-22, 15-13).
In the men’s event, Europe sat out of the podium of a Challenge or Elite16 event for the first time in the season. The continent had two teams in the quarterfinals, but Dutch Steve van de Velde and Matthew Immers fell to eventual champions Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert of Australia while Polish Piotr Kantor and Jakub Zdybek were stopped by fourth-place finishers Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci of Brazil, finishing fifth.
The next top-level Beach Pro Tour event to take place this season will be Gstaad Elite16, in Switzerland, from July 5-9.