Strong and experienced field ready to go in Timişoara
U22 European Championships
The beach volleyball season is set to heat up in Europe in the near future as the four European Championships – the EuroBeachVolley and the U22, U20 and U18 continental tournaments – will all take place over the next five weeks.
The first of them will be the U22 European Championships, which will be held in Timişoara, Romania, this week, from Tuesday to Saturday, featuring 37 men’s and 32 women’s teams – as many as 35 different European nations will be represented in the event.
The event begins on Tuesday, with the men’s qualifier, which will have seven teams playing for the final two spots in the main draw – Slovakia’s Adrian Petruf/Simon Cervenak, Greece’s Panagiotis Semitekolos/Iosif Papadosifos, Croatia’s Marko Repek/Roko Vlašić, Kosovo’s Erion Bajrami/Ermal Maliqi, Scotland’s Cole Turnbull/Ewan Ramsay, Ireland’s Liam Corcoran/Conor Kelly and Northern Ireland’s Nicholas Skansen/Paddy Dally.
As the last step before the senior level, the U22 Age Group features several players with significant international experience and it will be no different at the European Championships, which will have some well-known faces in both genders.
In the men’s event, Czechs Jakub Sepka, 21, and Tomas Semerad, 20, are among the ones who have been battle-tested at the highest level of the sport. The two, who are also set to play at the EuroBeachVolley next week, have played in 14 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour events in 2022 and 2023, having recently made an appearance in the main draw of the Gstaad Elite16, in Switzerland. They also represented Czechia in the Preliminary Phase of the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup 2023.
Latvian Kristians Fokerots, 18, also earned some valuable international experience in 2022, when he paired with Tokyo Olympic semifinalist Edgars Tocs in ten Beach Pro Tour events - he will play with Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Martins Plavins in the next Futures events in 2023.
Fokerots, who will be paired with 19-year-old Olivers Bulgacs in the U22 European Championships, enters the event as the reigning U18 continental champion after he won the title with Gustavs Auzins in 2022 – he also took silver in the U22 Age Group with Arturs Rinkevics.
One of his opponents in last year’s final, Swedish Jacob Nilsson will be back to defend the title he won with reigning EuroBeachVolley champion David Åhman in 2022. The 18-year-old Swede has Hampus Ekstrand as his partner this week in Timişoara.
Austrians Tim Berger and Timo Hammarberg, who won the U20 European title last season, are also among the contenders in the event held in Romania.
In the women’s event, 20-year-old Ukrainian Anhelina Khmil is probably the most accomplished player in the field. She formed a strong partnership with Tetiana Lazarenko over the last three years, winning the U21 world title in 2021, U18 and U20 European titles in 2020 and 2022 respectively and golds at the FIVB World Tour and the Beach Pro Tour in 2021 and 2022. In Timişoara, she will try to find success with 19-year-old Yeva Serdiuk.
The silver medalists of last year’s U22 European Championship, 21-year-old Danish Clara Windeleff and Sofia Bisgaard will also be back, looking to win gold this time. The team has also appeared in several international events over the last two seasons, having finished ninth at last year’s EuroBeachVolley.
Latvians Varvara Brailko and Anete Namike also have had some success in the Age Group European Championships, having won the U20 title back in 2020. The 21-year-olds are reunited again this season after spending most of 2022 with different partners.
The main draw in Timişoara will have 32 teams in each gender, which will be split into eight pools. The best three teams in each pool will advance to the elimination rounds.