Hungary’s Stefania Kun & Lilla Villam and Turkiye’s Yusuf Ozdemir & Batuhan Kuru earned their first ever gold medals on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. They topped the women’s and the men’s podiums at the Balikesir Futures that came to a conclusion on Sunday in Turkiye. Kun & Villam were accompanied by Czechia’s Anna Pospisilova & Michaela Brinkova with silver and Finland’s Sara Sinisalo & Anniina Muukka with bronze. Latvia’s Ardis Bedritis & Arturs Rinkevics and Ukraine’s Oleksii Bublyk & Ivan Datsiuk lined up with silver and bronze in the men’s competition.

Seeded third in the women’s main draw bracket, 19-year-old Stefania Kun and 28-year-old Lilla Villam cruised through the tournament undefeated in five matches played and collected their second Beach Pro Tour medal, after the Qidong Futures silver in June. In the semifinals, the Hungarians claimed a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) win over ninth-seeded Germans Sophia Neuss & Mareet Maidhof, and in the gold medal showdown, they took a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) victory over Anna Pospisilova & Michaela Brinkova to triumph with their first gold.

The sixth-seeded Czechs started off with a loss to Sara Sinisalo & Anniina Muukka, but then managed to string together four wins in a row to secure their first Beach Pro Tour medal as a pair. In their semifinal, they got back at the 21-year-old Finns with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-13) shutout.

Sinisalo & Muukka started their Balikesir campaign from the qualifiers and were seeded 11^th in the main draw. They bounced back from their defeat in the semis with a tight 2-0 (21-19, 27-25) win over Neuss & Maidhof in the bronze medal match and also achieved their first ever podium on the Beach Pro Tour.

Yusuf Ozdemir & Batuhan Kuru delighted the home fans in Turkiye with the men’s gold, their first Beach Pro Tour medal of any color. In five matches played, the fourth-seeded Turkish duo persevered through five tie-breakers to finish the tournament unbeaten. They crowned their run with a 2-1 (21-19, 25-27, 15-7) win over ninth-seeded Latvian qualifiers Olivers Bulgacs & Markuss Graudins in the semifinals and a 2-1 (17-21, 21-14, 16-14) turnaround against another Latvian pair – Ardis Bedritis & Arturs Rinkevics – in the final.

Seventh-seeded Bedritis & Rinkevics won all four of their matches on the way to the final. In the semis, they produced a 2-0 (21-15, 22-20) victory over Oleksii Bublyk & Ivan Datsiuk to secure their fourth Beach Pro Tour medal.

The Ukrainian qualifiers, seeded 11^th in the main draw, came back to win the bronze medal match against Bulgacs & Graudins by 2-0 (21-18, 21-9) and celebrate their first Beach Pro Tour podium as a duo.

23 women’s and 27 men’s duos representing 21 different countries took part in the Balikesir Futures.

The next Futures event is set to take place in Pompano Beach, USA from December 4 to 7.

Balikesir Futures: results and standings

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