Young Spanish and Danish at the top of the continent
U18 EuroBeachVolley
Beach volleyball teams from Spain and Denmark made history on Sunday, giving their countries their first CEV U18 EuroBeachVolley titles at the Parque Deportivo Puerta de Hierro, in Madrid.
The Spanish victory came with 17-year-olds Sofia Izuzquiza and Marta Carro, in the women’s tournament, while Denmark got to celebrate the triumph of 17-year-olds Villads Napier and Andreas Brinck among the men.
Izuzquiza, who had taken bronze at the U22 EuroBeachVolley a few weeks ago, and Carro, the younger sister of Spanish player Maria Carro, won all their seven matches this week in Madrid and prevailed on a pair of tie-breakers on Sunday, overcoming French Saofe Duval and Romane Sobezalz (23-25, 21-15, 15-10) in the semifinals and Austrians Lia Berger and Lilli Hohenauer (21-19, 16-21, 15-12) in the gold medal match.
Duval and Sobezalz recovered on time for the bronze medal match and made it to the podium in third place after they swept (21-16, 21-10) Dutch Floor Hogenhout and Trijntje Veerbeek.
On the men’s event, Brinck, who had taken silver at last year’s U18 EuroBeachVolley, and Napier were also undefeated and dropped just two sets during the tournament. One of them was in the gold medal match, where they downed Swedish Elmer Andersson and Hannes Nilsson 2-1 (20-22, 21-16, 15-8).
Winning bronze in Madrid were Hungarians Bence Tari and Akos Veress, who overcame Dutch Tom Sonneville and Bram van Der Wel also in straight sets (25-23, 21-14) to finish in third place.