Stare Jablonki to host first-ever #EuroBeachVolley on Polish soil

The 2026 edition of the elite CEV EuroBeachVolley will be taking place in Stare Jablonki, thereby taking the continental championship to Poland for the first time in history since its inception in the early 90s. The event will run from August 12 to 16 in the small village that has established itself as a real major Beach Volleyball hub since it played host to the 2013 edition of the FIVB World Championships and to many more high-profile competitions in the sport. 

Stare Jablonki, where two Beach Volleyball courts were first opened in 1995, did welcome a first international Beach Volleyball event in 2003, when it hosted the U23 European Championships. The first stop of the FIVB World Tour, a men’s only event, followed a year later and double-gender competitions were then organised from 2005 to 2009. The organisers raised the bar quite significantly when they delivered a FIVB Grand Slam for the first time in 2010 – repeating the experience in 2011, 2012 and 2014 – a year after the World Championships. After delivering Beach Pro Tour Challenge events in 2024 and 2025, Stare Jablonki somehow return to their roots with next year’s EuroBeachVolley. The venue did also play host to an elite beach handball event – the EHF Euro Beach Handball – in 2019. 

Poland is unanimously and globally known as a Volleyball-mad country. However, Beach Volleyball has become a popular sport as well and Polish teams have achieved much success on the international stage, doing so especially in age-group competitions. 

To this day, Poland has secured five EuroBeachVolley podium finishes – it all started in 2013 in Klagenfurt when Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel claimed the bronze medal, a feat they repeated three years later in Biel / Bienne, Switzerland. Poland’s most recent podium finish came in 2021 when Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor were third in Vienna at the event organised shortly after completion of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Their women’s teams have featured twice on the podium – Monika Brzostek and Kinga Kolosinska were third in 2015 and Kolosinska – competing under her married name, Wojtasik – emerged as a silver medal winner in 2019 in Moscow together with partner Katarzyna Kociolek. This remains Poland’s best EuroBeachVolley result to date. 

Youngsters from Poland are slowly making a name for themselves and will be eager to compete at the highest level on home soil in the late summer of 2026. Malgorzata Ciezkowska and Urszula Lunio, for instance, compose one such team. Earlier this year, they won #EuroBeachVolleyU22 bronze two years after crowning themselves U20 European champions. Moreover, they finished as high as ninth at this year’s #EuroBeachVolley, thereby showing their ability to play the role of real contenders also on the ‘senior’ stage despite their young age. Julia Radelczuk and Zuzanna Kudlik, on the other hand, are the reigning #EuroBeachVolleyU20 champions. These young talents represent the ‘nouvelle vague’ of Polish Beach Volleyball, together with more experienced athletes such as Michal Bryl and former #EuroBeachVolley medallist Losiak. 

“The event in Stare Jablonki represents a major move for European Beach Volleyball and we look forward to delivering our continental championship in a place that has cemented its role as a real Beach Volleyball Mecca over the past decade. We also expect the local fans to deliver a spine-tingling atmosphere that will help Europe’s Beach Volleyball elite rise to the occasion and perform to the very best of their ability. Surprises are always around the corner, as we were able to witness earlier this summer in Düsseldorf – so all the conditions are there for an amazing showcase of the sport combined with the prowess of our top players,” says CEV President Roko Sikirić. 

“I am very happy that together with the Polish Volleyball Federation we will have the opportunity to organise an event that has never been held here before, the CEV EuroBeachVolley. This is the fulfilment of our dreams. We can say that this is a return to our roots, because our first international event was organised in 2003, and it was the European Championship for the U23 age category. This was the beginning of a long journey that we have made as a promoter of Beach Volleyball events for the past years. I would like to thank the CEV for the trust they have placed in us and assure everyone that we will do everything to make this a unique and successful event – the best in history,” says Tomasz Dowgiałło, Promoter.