European teams have laid the groundwork for another Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour men’s podium filled entirely by teams from the continent at this week’s Uberlândia Elite16 with impressive victories in the elimination rounds in Brazil on Saturday.

The event held at the Praia Clube will see a pair of all-European semifinals on Sunday, with Czechia’s Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner battling Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak at 10:00 local time (13:00 UTC) and Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum facing the Netherlands’ Steven van de Velde/Matthew Immers one hour later. The Doha and Tepic Elite16 events also had four European teams in the semifinals.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Uberlândia Elite16 live or on demand on VBTV.

The 28-year-old Perusic and Schweiner will be making their first appearance in the Final Four of an Elite16 event in the 2023 season in Uberlândia – the Czechs were fifth in Tepic in their only tournament this season before playing in Brazil.

The Tokyo Olympians faced opponents with entirely different styles in the elimination rounds on Saturday, topping Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira in the tie-breaker (21-12, 21-23, 17-15) in the Round of 12 and sweeping (26-24, 25-23) Swedish rising stars David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig in the quarterfinals.

“The Swedish have been almost unbeatable since the start of the season,” Schweiner reflected. “We were certainly the underdogs today and I’m glad we managed to win. Today we had one of our best performances as a team ever, and we were able to beat them by two points. Let’s see what we can do in the semifinals.”

Beach Pro Tour Uberlândia Elite16 – Match Schedule & Results

Their next opponents Bryl and Łosiak, who were fourth in the Doha Elite16 in February, had a less intense day in Uberlândia, getting on the court only once and downing Americans Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk in straight sets (21-13, 21-15) in the quarterfinals.

Reigning Olympic and world champions Mol and Sørum will be looking for their third Beach Pro Tour medal in 2023 after taking gold in Doha and silver in Tepic. On Saturday, the Norwegians continued their journey to the podium in Uberlândia with a two-set (21-18, 21-16) victory over Dutch veterans Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen in the quarterfinals.

The Beach Volley Vikings have another Dutch team between them and the gold medal in Brazil in van de Velde and Immers. The two made it to the semifinals of their first Elite16 event as partners with a come-from-behind three-set (21-23, 21-19, 15-10) victory over Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler in the quarterfinals.

The gold medal match in Uberlândia is set to start at 16:00 local time (19:00 UTC) on Sunday, with the dispute for bronze taking bronze two hours earlier.

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour 2023
VBTV
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube