The start of the inaugural season of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour is just around the corner with the first event of the year, a Challenge tournament in Tlaxcala, Mexico, set to take place in less than two weeks, from March 16-20.

It’s time beach volleyball teams from around the world enter the final stage of their preparations for the season and for many of them, that means leaving home and going to an overseas training camp, where they can practise with elite-level opponents and, in some cases, escape the cold weather and train outdoors.

The Spanish island of Tenerife has long been the top destination for European teams at this time of the year, and it’s no different in 2022. Several of the top teams on the continent are currently or were recently on the island, fine-tuning their games ahead of the start of the season.

Reigning Olympic champions Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway are among those teams. The Beach Volley Vikings have spent a good deal of time in Tenerife and during their stay participated in a training session people would pay serious money to attend, alongside fellow Tokyo Olympic medallists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar.

Cherif and Ahmed are back home in Doha now, where they are hosting a training camp of their own with the new Polish team of Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl.

The programme for players while attending these training camps is typically very tiring. Schedules are structured to make the most of the opportunity ahead of the upcoming season. Right, Joana Heidrich?

Another top player, Olympic semifinalist Anastasija Kravcenoka, crossed the Atlantic to be able to train with Latvian partner Tina Graudina, who’s attending college in Los Angeles. The pair practised with several American teams, but also with the new Japanese duo Miki Ishii and Sayaka Mizoe.

Fellow Latvian Olympians Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins are in Southern California too. They don’t want to miss any opportunities to practise, even if that means interrupting sightseeing for a few minutes.

Canada are also well-represented in Southern California with reigning world champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes and the country’s new men’s team of Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing both making Hermosa Beach their home base for a few weeks.

Brazil has typically been a top destination for international teams at this time of year too. The winners of the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals, Germans Karla Borger and Julia Sude, chose to start their season in Rio de Janeiro.

Coached by Brazilians, the Canadian team of Brandie Wilkerson and Sophie Bukovec and the Italian duo of Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi have also both spent a lot of time in South America recently. The ladies in Rio and the men in Joao Pessoa.

The leading Mexican teams, on the other hand, didn’t waste any time to get to Tlaxcala. They have already taken some time to scout the competition venue at the Plaza de la Constitucion, which looks beautiful.

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Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour
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