Hungarian teens win Sveti Vlas Futures to continue excellent season

19-year-old Hungarians Bence Tari & Lukas Niemeier topped the men’s podium at the Sveti Vlas Futures on Sunday, earning their first gold on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, but also continuing an excellent season with fourth consecutive top-four finish. Serbia’s Marko Makaric & Djordje Klasnic and Ukraine’s Ivan Likhatskyi & Richard Likhatskyi took silver and bronze, respectively, while Tetiana Lazarenko & Sofiia Kurnikova of Ukraine, Torrey Van Winden & Lindsey Sparks of the United States and Agostina Ghigliazza & Morena Marisa Abdala of Argentina lined up with the women’s medals in Bulgaria.

Bence Tari & Lukas Niemeier, who teamed up for the start of the 2026 season, had claimed bronze at the Tahiti Futures and fourth-place finishes at the Madrid Futures and the Cervia Futures, arriving in the picturesque Black Sea resort town of Sveti Vlas as the bracket leaders in the men’s tournament. They lived up to their status with a victorious run of five consecutive matches on the way to the first Beach Pro Tour gold for either of the two talented athletes. In the semifinals, the Hungarian teens came back from a set down against third-seeded Ukrainians Ivan Likhatskyi & Richard Likhatskyi to produce a 2-1 (17-21, 21-17, 15-11) turnaround. They persevered through another tough tie-breaker match in the gold medal showdown against fifth-seeded Serbians Marko Makaric & Djordje Klasnic to celebrate a 2-1 (22-20, 15-21, 15-10) victory and lift the Sveti Vlas trophy.

Makaric & Klasnic reached the final in Bulgaria on a four-match winning streak, dropping only a set along the way, in the 2-1 (21-18, 21-23, 15-12) semifinal victory over fourth-seeded home favorites Dimitar Kalchev & Dimitar Mehandzhiyski, securing the Serbian pair’s second Beach Pro Tour silver. The first one was also earned at the same venue in Bulgaria last year.

Supported by a large crowd of Ukrainian fans on this Black Sea beach, Likhatskyi & Likhatskyi picked up their second Beach Pro Tour bronze together, after the one at the Laginha Beach Futures in December. The Ukrainians recovered from their only loss of the tournament in the semifinals with a 2-1 (17-21, 21-16, 15-11) comeback win over Bulgaria’s Kalchev & Mehandzhiyski in the third-place playoff.

22-year-old Tetiana Lazarenko, a reigning European champion and a 2021 U21 world champion, and her current 20-year-old teammate Sofiia Kurnikova triumphed on top of their first Beach Pro Tour podium as a duo. In Sveti Vlas, the top seeds made a perfect run of four straight-set wins on the way to the gold medal match, crowned with a 2-0 (21-12, 23-21) semifinal victory over second-seeded Argentineans Agostina Ghigliazza & Morena Marisa Abdala. In the final, the Ukrainian pair dropped their first set of the competition, but emerged with a 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 15-13) comeback against USA’s Torrey Van Winden & Lindsey Sparks to snatch the gold.

Beach Pro Tour rookie Van Winden and Sparks, who had one previous appearance on the Tour, decorated their partnership’s Tour debut with a silver medal. They started their Sveti Vlas campaign from the qualifications and managed to string up five wins together on the way to the final. Four of those came after three-set battles, including the semifinal against ninth-seeded Swedish qualifiers Selma Robinson & Isabelle Reffel, which the 10^th-seeded Americans won by 2-1 (21-9, 19-21, 15-3). Interestingly, Van Winden also had one appearance on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour back in 2018, when she brought home the Porec 1-star gold medal.

The Sveti Vlas bronze was also the first Beach Pro Tour medal in Ghigliazza & Abdala’s collection. The Argentineans bounced back from their semifinal loss to Lazarenko & Kurnikova with a 2-1 (21-15, 12-21, 15-11) victory over Robinson & Reffel in the third-place game.

27 men’s and 25 women’s duos representing 23 different countries from all five continents took part in the Sveti Vlas Futures.

The next two Futures stops on the Beach Pro Tour will be held in Jurmala, Latvia from June 10 to 14, and in Spiez, Switzerland (women only) from June 11 to 14.

Sveti Vlas Futures: all results

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