Swiss Olympian Gerson back on the sand in Spiez
Futures in Europe
The Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures in Europe get to Switzerland this week and one of the country’s top players in the last decade will be among the main attractions of the tournament set to be played in Spiez from Wednesday to Sunday.
A Tokyo Olympian, 31-year-old defender Mirco Gerson will make his first international appearance after representing his country at the Japanese capital three years ago this week, joining forces with 19-year-old Luc Flückiger in the event staged at the Lake side beach center.
Gerson competed internationally from 2012 to 2021, having won five medals in the period, but since 2022 has only been playing in the Swiss domestic tour.
Flückiger and him were awarded a wild card into the event and will be one of four Swiss teams to start directly in the main draw, alongside Quentin Métral/Jonathan Jordan, Yves Haussener/Julian Friedli and Maël Masserey/Tinko Schnegg.
The men’s event in Spiez, which starts on Thursday with the qualifier and ends on Sunday with the medal matches, will feature 28 teams, 24 of which come from 17 European nations – Switzerland (5), Czechia (2), Israel (2), Ukraine (2), Austria, Belgium, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Sweden. Two pairs from the Philippines and one from each of Brazil and Egypt complete the lineup.
The women’s tournament in Spiez, which begins on Wednesday and goes through Saturday, will have not one, but two Olympians in action – top-seeded Egyptian Doaa Elghobashy, who will play with Marwa Abdelhady, and Czech veteran Marketa Slukova, having Karin Zolnercikova by her side.
The two duos start directly in the main draw, as do four Swiss teams – Annique Niederhauser/Leona Kernen, Menia Bentele/Muriel Bossart, Anna Lutz/Julie Bovet and Deborah Lutz/Jasmine Wandeler.
The women’s competition will also feature 28 teams, with 20 of them hailing from 12 European countries – Switzerland (5), the Netherlands (3), Czechia (2), Latvia (2), Austria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Ukraine. There will be more international representation among the female tandems, with three duos from the United States and one from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt and the Philippines making the trip to compete in Spiez.
The Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Europe are run by the CEV in close cooperation with Volleyball World and provide teams from the continent with several opportunities to compete and gain valuable international ranking points.