Recife Challenge bronze medals for FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries from England and Lithuania

• England’s beach volleyball has received CHF 77,000 of Volleyball Empowerment support

  
  

• The Bello twins collect their second Challenge-level medal

  
  

• Brazil’s Oliveira & Mariano beat Cuba’s Diaz & Alayo in the men’s final

  
  

• Lithuania’s beach volleyball has been allocated CHF 271,000 of Volleyball Empowerment support

  
  

• Paulikiene & Raupelyte celebrate their first Challenge-level podium

  
  

• Anastasija & Tina of Latvia win women’s gold while Bansley & Bukovec of Canada take silver

  
  

Pairs from England and Lithuania claimed the men’s and the women’s bronze medals, respectively, at the first Challenge event of the 2024 Beach Pro Tour season, held in Recife, Brazil last week. Both countries receive coach support from the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment programme.

Joaquin Bello (pictured in the main photo) & Javier Bello finished third in the men’s tournament, claiming a podium place alongside winners Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano of Brazil and runners-up Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo of Cuba. Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte claimed the final place on the podium in the women’s competition, after gold medallists Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia and silver medallists Heather Bansley & Sophie Bukovec of Canada.

England’s beach volleyball has so far been allocated CHF 72,000 worth of coach support and another CHF 5,000 as a national teams coaches development grant from Volleyball Empowerment. The 23-year-old Bello twins have been making use of the coaching skills of New Zealand specialist Kirk Pitman.

The seventh-seeded English pair started their Recife Challenge campaign with three consecutive wins to reach the semifinals, where their winning streak was stopped by a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) defeat at the hands of sixth-seeded Diaz & Alayo of Cuba. The pair from England had beaten the team from Cuba team earlier in the tournament, in the Pool F final, coming back from a set down to claim an epic 2-1 (21-23, 22-20, 15-13) victory. Bello & Bello bounced back to claim the bronze with a hard-fought 2-1 (26-24, 15-21, 15-13) win over fifth-seeded Chase Budinger & Miles Evans of the USA.

The twins had picked up only one medal on the Beach Pro Tour until the fall of 2023, a Cortegaça Futures bronze in 2022. In October 2023, they celebrated their first Challenge-level podium with a bronze in Goa, then finished the year with another two good results at Challenge tournaments – fifth in Haikou and fourth in Nuvali – and claimed another bronze at the first Challenge event in 2024 to solidify their stellar performance in recent months.

Third-seeded Oliveira & Mariano started the tournament in Recife with a surprise loss to qualifiers from Argentina, Nicolas Capogrosso & Tomas Capogrosso in the first pool match, but then produced five wins in a row to please the home crowd with the men’s trophy, their second Beach Pro Tour gold, after last year’s Saquarema Challenge in Brazil. In the semi-finals, they defeated Evans & Budinger in three sets, 2-1 (21-16, 14-21, 15-7), and followed up with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) sweep of Sunday’s final against Diaz & Alayo.

The Recife silver was the first Beach Pro Tour medal for the pair, both in their early 20s.

Lithuania’s beach volleyball programme has so far been granted a total of CHF 265,000 of coach support for their women’s national teams. This is in addition to CHF 5,000 for national teams coaches development and another CHF 1,000 in beach volleyball equipment from Volleyball Empowerment.

Capitalising on the coaching of Robert Zuchowski from Poland and Gytis Garbaciauskas, 29-year-old Monika Paulikiene and 23-year-old Aine Raupelyte achieved their first Challenge-level podium. Previously, Lithuania’s leading women’s pair had collected only one Beach Pro Tour medal, a bronze at the 2022 Futures event in the Hague.

Seeded 14th in the Recife main draw, Paulikiene & Raupelyte ran through the tournament on a 4-2 win-loss record, suffering both of their defeats at the hands of eventual trophy winners Anastasija & Tina, first in their pool final and then in the semi-finals. The duo from Lithuania pushed the second-seeded Latvians to a tie-breaker in the duel for a spot in the final, but Anastasija & Tina survived with a 2-1 (18-21, 21-15, 15-9) victory. Paulikiene & Raupelyte rebounded with a 2-1 (21-14, 17-21, 15-9) win over fifth-seeded Karla Borger & Sandra Ittlinger in the third-place match.

A five-game winning run in Recife led Anastasija & Tina to the top of the podium. In the final, they mastered a 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) win over Bansley & Bukovec of Canada to celebrate their second-ever world-level gold, after winning the Nuvali Challenge in December.

Two-time Olympian Heather Bansley and 2022 FIVB World Championship silver medallist Sophie Bukovec teamed up in the summer of 2023 after the former came out of retirement. The Recife silver was the pair’s first medal at the Challenge level. Last summer they also took gold at the Halifax Futures at home in Canada.

48 teams per gender from 35 different countries took part in the Recife Challenge. The next Challenge event will take place in Saquarema, Brazil this week, from 28 to 31 March.

Recife Challenge results and standings