First Challenge medal for Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries Stankevičius and Knasas

FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries Patrikas Stankevičius and Audrius Knasas (pictured in the main photo; credits: ltf.lt) of Lithuania have celebrated their first-ever medal at the Challenge level of the Beach Pro Tour. They claimed bronze at last week’s Nuvali stop in the Philippines. In the final, Austria’s Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz beat Australia’s Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert, while Latvia’s Anastasija Samoilova and Tina Graudina, Spain’s Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno, and Brazil’s Taina Bigi and Victoria Lopes lined up on the women’s podium with gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

Lithuanian men’s beach volleyball has been granted CHF 72,000 worth of coach support from Volleyball Empowerment within a total assistance of over CHF 193,000 that the country’s beach volleyball programme has so far been allocated. Stankevičius and Knasas have been benefitting from the training expertise of coach Gytis Garbaciauskas.

The 13th-seeded Lithuanian pair’s journey in the Nuvali main draw started with a 2-1 (21-17, 15-21, 15-6) loss to France’s Arthur Canet and Teo Rotar. However they then recovered with three consecutive wins on the way to the last four: 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) over England’s Issa Batrane and Frederick Bialokoz, 2-0 (21-14, 21-19) over France’s Samuel Cattet and Olivier Barthelemy, and 2-1 (21-16, 13-21, 15-9) over seventh-seeded Spanish duo Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira.

25-year-old Knasas and 24-year-old Stankevičius pushed second-seeded Hodges and Schubert to a third-set decider in their semifinal encounter, but the Australians celebrated a narrow 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-13) victory. The Lithuanians then bounced back with a hard-fought 2-1 (23-21, 17-21, 15-10) win over England’s Javier Bello and Joaquin Bello in the third-place game to add a third medal to their Beach Pro Tour collection, after last year’s Futures trophies from Mysłowice and Budapest.

“We are extremely grateful to everyone who contributes as much as they can - with help, finances, advice. Raising the budget is one of the biggest challenges, so we are glad to have people who support us,” Stankevičius and Knasas said upon returning home to Lithuania. “It was only a matter of time that we would achieve this, because we train and play with the same teams all year. The last tournament of the year brought such excitement, we are already looking forward to next year.”

Stankevičius and Knasas show off their Nuvali bronze medals and trophies (Photo credits: ltf.lt)

33-year-old Rio 2016 Olympian Seidl and his 27-year-old partner Pristauz cruised to the Nuvali gold undefeated in six matches, dropping only a set along the way. In the semifinals, the third-seeded Austrians defeated the Bello twins in a 2-0 (21-13, 22-20) straight-setter and went on to master a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) sweep of the final against the Australians, Hodges and Schubert. It was the teams' third Beach Pro Tour podium, after the La Paz Challenge bronze and the Goa Challenge gold earlier this year.

The Nuvali silver was the sixth medal for 29-year-old Hodges and 27-year-old Schubert on the Beach Pro Tour.

Seeded fifth in the women’s tournament, Tokyo 2020 Olympians Anastasija Samoilova and Tina Graudina claimed their first-ever gold on the Tour, after having previously picked up two silvers and a bronze. The Latvians didn’t lose a single set in their six-game run in the Philippines. In the semifinals, 26-year-old Samoilova and 25-year-old Graudina produced a 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) win over top-seeded Taina Bigi and Victoria Lopes and followed up with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) sweep of the gold medal match against third-seeded Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno.

To reach the Beach Pro Tour final and win the silver medal, after the bronze medals from the 2022 Balikesir Futures and the 2023 Goa Challenge, 22-year-old Alvarez and 21-year-old Moreno delivered a 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) victory in their semifinal against France’s Lezana Placette and Alexia Richard.

In the third-place match, 28-year-old Bigi and 24-year-old Lopes achieved a 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) win over the French team and picked up their fourth Challenge medal on the Beach Pro Tour.

The 2023 Nuvali Challenge podium (Photo credits: Volleyball Philippines)

The Nuvali Challenge was the last Beach Pro Tour event of the season before this week’s Finals in Doha. A total of 82 teams representing 25 different countries took part in the tournament.

Beach Pro Tour 2023 full event schedule