Host nation Czechia claimed five of the six medals at the Prague Futures on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour that came to an end on Sunday. Katerina Pavelkova & Anna Pavelkova, Marie-Sara Stochlova & Marketa Svozilova and Martina Maixnerova & Kylie Neuschaeferova, in that order, lined up on the women’s podium with gold, silver and bronze. Jakub Sepka & Jiri Sedlak finished runners-up in the men’s tournament, Tadeas Trousil & Matyas Dzavoronok took bronze, while Mees Sengers & Leon Luini of the Netherlands took the men’s gold and emerged as the only foreign team to make the podiums.

19-year-old twins Pavelkova & Pavelkova ran through the competition undefeated in five matches played and picked up their first Beach Pro Tour trophy and second overall medal, after claiming silver at the Cervia Futures in May. The reigning U22 European champions, seeded fourth in Prague, achieved a very tight 2-0 (22-20, 30-28) semifinal win over seventh-seeded compatriots Maixnerova & Neuschaeferova and followed up with a hard-fought 2-1 (22-20, 17-21, 15-13) upset of top-seeded Stochlova & Svozilova in the final.

Paris 2024 Olympian Stochlova and her new 22-year-old partner Svozilova, who have been playing in Elite and Challenge tournaments so far, reached the Prague Futures final on a perfect four-game straight-set winning streak crowned with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-12) shutout of Poland’s Marta Lodej & Julia Kielak, seeded 11^th, in the semifinals, and collected their first Beach Pro Tour medal as a team.

Maixnerova & Neuschaeferova also grabbed their first medal together after a 2-1 (19-21, 21-12, 15-8) comeback victory over Lodej & Kielak in the match for the bronze.

Upon their Beach Pro Tour debut as a pair, Sengers & Luini won all five of their matches in Prague, dropping only a set along the way, to top the men’s podium and earn the first Tour gold for either of the two players. In the semifinals, the second-seeded Dutchmen achieved a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) win over Belgium’s Gilles Vandecaveye & Louis Vandecaveye, seeded fourth, and then mastered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) sweep of the final against top-seeded Czechs Sepka & Sedlak.

Also reaching the final while losing only a set on the way, Sepka & Sedlak settled for silver, their second Beach Pro Tour medal, after the Leuven Futures gold last year. In the Prague semifinals, they produced a 2-0 (21-16, 21-12) victory over third-seeded compatriots Trousil & Dzavoronok, who then bounced back with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) win of the third-place game against Vandecaveye & Vandecaveye to claim their third Beach Pro Tour medal. In fact, ever since they teamed up for the start of this season, Trousil & Dzavoronok have made the podiums at all three Futures events they have attended, also celebrating gold in Madrid and bronze in Spiez last month.

28 women’s and 28 men’s teams representing 24 different countries took part in the Prague Futures. As many as four Futures events will run concurrently this week, from June 12 to 15 – in Qingdao, China, in Jurmala, Latvia, a women’s tournament in Krakow, Poland and a men’s tournament in Malmo, Sweden.

Prague Futures: results and standings

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