The fourth Challenge event on the 2023 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour is coming to Jurmala this week. From June 15 through 18, the iconic Latvian venue will welcome a world-level tournament for the third time and all of the previous winners will be back for more…
Beach Pro Tour
All previous Jurmala winners back for more
The Latvian venue welcomes a world-level event for the third time
Published 08:21, 14 Jun 2023
2022 Jurmala Elite16 champions Nicolai & Cottafava in action during the final
· Watch the Beach Pro Tour Jurmala Challenge live on VBTV.
In 2019, Jurmala hosted a 3-star men’s stop on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. Back then, home heroes Aleksandrs Samoilovs & Janis Smedins topped the podium after beating Estonia’s Kusti Nolvak & Mart Tiisaar in the final. Both of these teams will be back in main draw action on Jurmala sand this week.
🏐 Iepazīsimies tuvāk ar Aleksandrs Samoilovs! Latvijas pludmales volejbolists, kurš savas sporta gaitas aizsāka jau...
Posted by Jurmala.Beachvolley on Wednesday, June 14, 2023
The second world-level event the Latvian coastal city hosted was last year’s Elite16 tournament on the Beach Pro Tour. Italy’s Paolo Nicolai & Samuele Cottafava claimed the men’s gold, their only victory on the Beach Pro Tour so far. Currently ranked number 10 in the FIVB World Ranking, the Italians will try to repeat their success at the Challenge level, seeded as the number one team in the main draw line-up. Jurmala has indeed been a great venue for three-time European champion Nicolai. In 2017, he earned his third continental title with former partner Daniele Lupo in the Latvian city. The next time Jurmala welcomed EuroBeachVolley in 2020, Nicolai & Lupo made the podium again with bronze.
Lupo himself will be coming to Jurmala this week with his current teammate Enrico Rossi as they grace the men’s qualification bracket for Thursday, starting off with a game against Estonia’s Kaur Erik Kais & Jaan Rebel at 14:30 local time (11:30 UTC).
The world’s number seven team, Andre Stein & George Wanderley of Brazil, are also returning to Jurmala after taking last year’s Elite16 bronze by overcoming Nolvak & Tiisaar in the third-place match.
Canada’s Sarah Pavan, probably the biggest star of Thursday’s qualifiers in Jurmala
The winners of the women’s Elite16 tournament in 2022, Melissa Humana-Paredes & Sarah Pavan of Canada, are back as well. However, this time the former world champions will not be competing together. Melissa will enter the Jurmala Challenge main draw with her current teammate Brandie Wilkerson, while Pavan and her new teammate Molly McBain will make their Beach Pro Tour debut together in Thursday’s qualifiers.
Jurmala has also played host to a number of continental competitions, including the above-mentioned European Championships in 2017 and 2020. The pre-seeding bracket leaders on entry points, Joana Mader & Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland, for example, carry a very nice memory from their trip to Latvia three years ago, when they earned their European crown. Meanwhile, the only thing Latvian standouts Anastasija Samoilova & Tina Graudina, the current number nine in the FIVB World Ranking and seed two for the upcoming tournament, have ever won in Jurmala was a U22 European Championship silver in 2018 and they are sure hungry for a big success in front of the home fans.
"We love to play with full stands, so I hope that Latvian fans will come and support us,” said Tina. “After all, we are also artists and want to show the audience a beautiful game. Jurmala is well known to us and we feel confident, but of course there will be strong competition.”
Prepare for the best & be there at Beach Volleyball World BPT CHALLENGE – JURMALA 🇱🇻 on June 15-18! 🏐 Mood is great...
Posted by Tina Graudina / Anastasija Samoilova on Tuesday, June 13, 2023
Thursday’s action is set to begin with the first whistle in the women’s qualifiers at 09:00 local time (06:00 UTC). The men will join the battles for the main draw vacancies at 12:20 (09:20).
A total of 95 teams from 28 different countries are set to battle it out for their share of the USD 150,000 prize purse and for valuable Olympic qualification points. In each gender, 32 pairs will engage in knockout qualifications to determine the eight that will complete the 24-duo main draw line-up. The main draw teams will be split into six pools, with the pool winners, the pool runners-up and the two best ranked third-placed teams advancing directly to the eighthfinals. The remaining four third-placed teams will move on to a playoff round to fill up the two remaining vacancies in the last 16.
