A new team in the 2025 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, Swiss Marco Krattiger and Leo Dillier took what was already a productive first season as partners to another level on Sunday, when they took gold in the Challenge event held in Warmia Mazury in a spectacular way.

The Swiss frustrated the many home fans that followed the action at Anders Hotel Beach and denied the Polish team of Michal Bryl and Bartosz Łosiak a home victory to claim their first title as partners. Germans Paul Henning and Lui Wüst also made it to the podium in third place.

• Watch Beach Pro Tour Warmia Mazury Challenge replays on VBTV

Krattiger, 30, and Dillier, 24, entered the gold medal match full of energy after they took a forfeit victory over Olympic champions David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig in the semifinals and they used it outlast Bryl and Łosiak, winning 2-1 (25-23, 16-21, 16-14) to take the title. The Swiss engineered an incredible comeback in the tie-breaker, coming back from a 13-6 deficit to outscore their opponents 10-1 and triumph.

“I don’t think I can explain what just happened,” Krattiger, who contributed to his team’s incredible run with a pair of aces and two blocks, reacted. “We had a very good first set, but I struggled a lot with my passing in the second and they were serving bombs all the time. I felt that we had a chance in the third set, but then we were down again. I thought the match was already over, but we still kept trying and somehow, we had the opportunity and we were able to take it.”

This was Krattiger and Dillier’s fourth medal in six Beach Pro Tour events since they became partners and unquestionably the most of important of them – the two also took silver at the Xiamen Challenge and the Spiez Futures and secured bronze in the Valencia Futures.

“It’s unbelievable,” Dillier said. “The stadium was full, and the crowd was against us, but that always pushes me. When we were down 10-6, I told Marco: ‘Please, do something cool. ’ And he did.”

The silver medal in Warmia Marzury was the first for Bryl and Łosiak in 2025 – the Polish Olympians played in five tournaments and had finished fourth twice.

Beach Pro Tour Warmia Mazury Challenge – Match Schedule & Results

The bronze medal match didn’t happen as Åhman and Hellvig couldn’t get on the court, giving Henning and Wüst a forfeit victory. It was the first medal won by the Germans in 2025.

The next Challenge event on the 2025 Beach Pro Tour calendar will be held in Brazil, from September 3-9. Next week, an Elite tournament will take place in Gstaad, Switzerland.

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