Futures - Bujumbura, BDI - 2025

Zuliani & Nicolas and Lovsin & Javornik win Bujumbura to claim first Beach Pro Tour gold medals

Teams from Hungary, Germany and USA also make the Futures podiums in Burundi

Published 08:30, 25 Aug 2025

Brazil’s Zuliani & Nicolas celebrate after winning the Bujumbura Futures final (source: cavb.africa)

Brazil’s Gabriel Zuliani & Nicolas Capretti Schosler and Slovenia’s Tajda Lovsin & Ziva Javornik celebrated their first gold medals on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. At the Bujumbura Futures in Burundi, they topped the men’s and the women’s podiums, respectively. Artur Hajos & Bence Attila Streli of Hungary and Sandra Ferger & Rika Dieckmann of Germany earned the silver medals, while both bronze medals went to American teams - James Avery Drost & Robert Wyatt Harrison and Jade Race & Katie Lindstrom.

The 2025 Bujumbura Futures medalists (source: cavb.africa)

23-year-old Brazilians Gabriel Zuliani & Nicolas Capretti Schosler crowned their Beach Pro Tour debut as a pair with an undefeated campaign of seven consecutive matches that propelled them from the qualifications all the way to the top of the podium and the first Tour gold for either of the two athletes. Zuliani & Nicolas were seeded 16^th in the 16-team main draw and delivered a number of upsets on the way to the trophy in Bujumbura. In the semifinals, the Brazilian duo mastered a 2-0 (21-11, 21-17) shutout of third-seeded Takumi Takahashi & Jumpei Ikeda pf Japan, and in the final, they produced a 2-0 (21-15, 21-14) victory over seventh-seeded Hungarians Artur Hajos & Bence Attila Streli.

In their semifinal, Hajos & Streli put together a 2-0 (26-24, 21-14) upset of second-seeded Americans James Avery Drost & Robert Wyatt Harrison to secure their second Beach Pro Tour podium as a duo, after the Cervia Futures silver in 2023.

Drost & Harrison hammered out a 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) sweep of the third-place match against Takahashi & Ikeda to decorate their first appearance on the Beach Pro Tour as a team with a bronze medal.

🏆🇸🇮 Slovenia takes the crown in Bujumbura! Tajda Lousin and Ziva Javornik delivered a breathtaking performance to...
Posted by Fédération Burundaise de Volleyball on Saturday, August 23, 2025

Tajda Lovsin & Ziva Javornik also picked up the first Beach Pro Tour gold for either of them. The third-seeded Slovenians reached the Bujumbura women’s final without dropping a set in three matches played. Their perfect run was crowned with an emphatic 2-0 (21-11, 21-6) semifinal win over second-seeded Mahassine Siad & Dina Mellal of Morocco. In the gold medal showdown, Lovsin & Javornik did drop a set, but still emerged with a 2-1 (21-10, 17-21, 15-12) victory over Germany’s Sandra Ferger & Rika Dieckmann, seeded ninth. It was the Slovenian duo’s second Beach Pro Tour podium, after they claimed bronze at the Cervia Futures earlier this year.

The German team also reached the final unbeaten, after four straight-set victories, to guarantee themselves their first-ever Beach Pro Tour podium. In the semis, 34-year-old Ferger, who made her Tour debut in Burundi, and 16-year-old Dieckmann, who registered her second appearance on the Tour, mastered a 2-0 (21-11, 21-15) shutout of USA’s Jade Race & Katie Lindstrom.

The fourth-seeded Americans, playing together on the Tour for the first time, bounced back with a nail-biting 2-1 (25-27, 21-12, 16-14) victory over Mahassine & Dina for the bronze.