France claims second Beach Pro Tour medal with support from Volleyball Empowerment

In the men’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge tournament in Itapema, Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, one of the French teams who are receiving FIVB Volleyball Empowerment programme support ahead of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, reached the final to take silver, the second Beach Pro Tour medal for them as a team, after their triumph at the Torquay Elite16 in December.

Seeded fifth in the men’s main draw, Krou and Gauthier-Rat made a run of five wins in a row, including three tie-breaker victories, on the way to the final. They topped the Pool E standings after producing a 2-0 (25-23, 21-16) shutout of Switzerland’s Quentin Metral and Yves Haussener and a 2-1 (14-21, 22-20, 15-10) comeback against Brazil’s Evandro Oliveira and Arthur Mariano. The French duo went on to deliver another hard-fought comeback in the eighthfinals, 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 16-14) against Australia’s Christopher McHugh and Paul Burnett, before defeating Spanish legends Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira, seeded third in the tournament, by 2-1 (23-21, 13-21, 15-12) in the quarterfinals. In the semis, Krou and Gauthier-Rat claimed a 2-0 (24-22, 21-13) victory over Cuba’s Noslen Diaz and Jorge Alayo, before losing to Brazilian top seeds Andre Stein and George Wanderley, 2-0 (21-16, 21-13), in Sunday’s final.

“Our first tournament together was here in Itapema last year and we ended it with some really good feelings about our team,” Gauthier-Rat said. “We came here looking to do better this time and what we did was great for us.”

The men’s podium at the 2023 Itapema Challenge

Brazil’s Stein and Wanderley kept the tradition of winning the trophy in Itapema and, after their success on Sunday, they climbed back up to number two in the FIVB World Ranking. This was their third consecutive triumph at this Brazilian venue, after claiming gold at the 2021 4-star on the World Tour and the 2022 Challenge on the Beach Pro Tour.

The Itapema men’s bronze went to Norway’s Mathias Berntsen and Hendrik Mol, who claimed a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) win over Diaz and Alayo in the third place match.

Beach Pro Tour 2023 full event schedule