World Tour returns to Portugal with 1-Star event in Cortegaça

Beach Volleyball’s popularity in Portugal has grown tremendously, especially following the Olympic participations of the legendary Miguel Maia/João Brenha (Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004) and Maria José Schuller/Cristina Pereira (Sydney 2000).

Portugal has organised dozens of international Beach Volleyball events: 16 stops of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour for men and 11 for women in Espinho, doing so uninterruptedly from 1995 to 2007 and from 2017 to 2019. In addition to Espinho, international events have taken place in Esposende (in 2001, the Under-23 European Championship won by the Portuguese duo José Pedrosa/José Teixeira), Porto, Porto Santo (Madeira Island) and Macedo de Cavaleiros.

This year, and still conditioned by the restrictions imposed by the fight against COVID-19, the Beach Volleyball World Tour returns to Portugal, after the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) confirmed the World Tour 1-Star event in Cortegaça, in the municipality of Ovar, due to run later this week from August 12 to 15, 2021.

This will be the first international competition held at the Centre for High Performance in Beach Volleyball (CARVP) run by the Portuguese Volleyball Federation, a sports facility that has already hosted the finals of the 2020 and 2021 National Beach Volleyball Championships, as well as camps for teams from Israel and Venezuela. All information about the Beach Volleyball World Tour 1-Star event in Cortegaça is available at fpvoleibol.pt/cortegaca2021 as well as here.

After hosting 4-star events in 2018 and 2019 (Espinho), the Portuguese Volleyball Federation (FPV) continues to enrich the country’s long history in organising important international competitions, such as World Tour events or Under Age European and World Championships.

On the sports front, João Pedrosa/Hugo Campos, the promising team supported by the Portuguese Volleyball Federation and vice national champions will carry the hopes of home success, together with Roberto Reis/Sebastião Alves (national champions in 2021), João Simões/Rui Moreira and Gabriel Cardoso/Fabrício Barros.

Inês Castro/Beatriz Pinheiro, another team supported by FPV, tops the group of Portuguese women competing in the Main Draw, which also includes Juliana Antunes/Tânia Oliveira (reigning national champions), Matilde Rodrigues/Mafalda Porto and Carolina Maia/Margarida Maia (vice national champions).

Due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, media representatives will only have access to the stands, as the event will be open to the public according to the rules of the Directorate General for Health upon presentation of a COVID-19 vaccination certificate, or antigen / PCR tests undertaken within 48 and 72 hours, respectively.