As many as three of the six pairs who earned their spots on the men’s or the women’s podiums at last week’s CEV Beach Volleyball European Championships in Vienna benefit from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment support. Spain’s Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno (pictured in the main photo; credits: cev.eu) finished as runners-up in the women’s podium, while the Netherlands’ Leon Luini and Yorick de Groot and Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik took the men’s silver and bronze, respectively.
Since 2017, the Real Federacion Espanola de Voleibal has been allocated CHF 180,000 in coach support, a great deal of which goes to developing Spain’s national beach volleyball duos. One of the beneficiaries, the pairing of 21-year-old Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno, has demonstrated tremendous growth and development, which led them to the continental silver at EuroBeachVolley 2023 in Austria.
After winning bronze at the FIVB U19 World Championship in 2018, bronze at the CEV U20 European Championship in 2019, gold at CEV U22 European Championship in 2022 and bronze at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Balikesir Futures in 2022, the Spanish duo celebrated their first silver at a major senior-level tournament. On the way to the final in Vienna, 11th-seeded Alvarez and Moreno dropped only a set, while producing five consecutive victories, including a 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) eighthfinal win over defending European champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia. In the semifinals, the talented Spaniards managed a 2-1 (25-27, 21-17, 15-13) turnaround against Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallists Joana Mader and Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland, before losing to another Swiss pair, 2021 European champions Tanja Huberli and Nina Brunner, in the final.
30-year-old Huberli and 27-year-old Brunner, who played in their third back-to-back and fourth overall continental final, mastered a 2-0 (21-12, 21-13) victory to regain the European crown. The bronze went to German stars Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann, who delivered a 2-1 (21-14, 18-21, 15-11) victory over Mader and Verge-Depre for the third place.
Leon Luini and Yorick de Groot celebrate EuroBeachVolley silver (Photo credits: cev.eu)
Dutch beach volleyball has been allocated a total of CHF 144,000 of Volleyball Empowerment coach support to develop its national teams on the sand. From this, 22-year-old Leon Luini and 23-year-old Yorick de Groot teamed up for the first time at an international event, securing a successful partnership debut.
With the pair seeded 11th, there were challenges during the pool stage of the tournament, however after four consecutive victories, the pair stormed to the final. This included the defeat of Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, reigning Olympic and world champions and number one in the FIVB World Ranking, in the quarterfinals. It was against the Norwegians that the Dutch lost the only set during that four-game winning streak, but still celebrated a 2-1 (16-21, 21-14, 15-11) comeback victory. In the semifinals, Luini and De Groot achieved a hard-fought 2-0 (22-20, 21-18) win over Popov and Reznik to advance to the final.
Defending European champions David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden, however, proved too strong for their Dutch opponents in the gold medal match and claimed a 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) victory to retain the title.
Moreover, Ukrainian national team duo, 32-year-old Popov and 34-year-old Reznik, compete internationally with Volleyball Empowerment assistance through an ongoing Memorandum of Understanding between the FIVB and the Ukrainian Volleyball Federation. In total, the FIVB provided financial support of up to USD 210,000 in 2022 across the men’s, women’s, U21 women’s and U22 men’s national volleyball teams, as well as Ukraine’s senior and U19 national beach volleyball teams. The 2023 MoU covers further assistance of up to USD 210,000 to support all of Ukraine’s volleyball and beach volleyball national teams with a focus on the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
In Vienna, Popov and Reznik achieved a historic feat by claiming the first-ever EuroBeachVolley medal in either gender. They took four victories in a row to reach the semifinal against Luini and De Groot, and then bounced back with a 2-0 (22-20, 21-13) sweep of the bronze medal match against Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava.
The EuroBeachVolley 2023 men’s podium (Photo credits: cev.eu)
Source : fivb.com
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