The men’s team of Elouan Chouikh-Barbez & Tom Altwies of France and the women’s pair of Melanie Paul & Hanna-Marie Schieder of Germany claimed their first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour medals by topping the podium at the Lille Futures on Sunday.

22-year-old Paul & Schieder started the tournament in France from Thursday’s qualifiers and won seven of the eight matches played to claim gold. It was their first appearance on the Tour as a team, but neither of them had been on top of the podium with different partners either. Last year Paul took a Cortegaca Futures silver with Nele Schmitt.

In the Lille final on Sunday, the Germans, initially seeded 11^th in the qualification bracket and then 13^th in the main draw, battled out for a tight 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 18-16) upset of fourth-seeded home favourites Aline Chamereau & Clemence Vieira, for whom this silver was also the first medal on the Beach Pro Tour.

Another French duo, Anouk Dupin & Ophelie Lusson, seeded bottom 16^th in the main draw bracket, made the podium with bronze after a 2-0 (21-13, 21-13) shutout of top-seeded Argentineans Maia Najul & Cecilia Peralta in the third-place match. For 20-year-old Dupin, it was the first appearance at a world-level tournament. For her 27-year-old partner Lusson, the Lille Futures also marked a Beach Pro Tour debut.

Chouikh & Altwies, seeded 14^th in the men’s main draw, went through their Lille campaign unbeaten in five matches to reach the top of the podium. For the 21-year-old Frenchmen, it was the fifth Beach Pro Tour appearance as a team. Their previous best result was a fifth place at last year’s Montpelier Futures.

On the way to the final, Chouikh & Altwies dropped a sensational upset of the tournament top seeds, fellow Frenchmen Youssef Krou & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, the number 13 team in the FIVB World Ranking. In a semifinal clash, Chouikh & Altwies delivered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) shutout of the favourites. In the big final, they went past ninth-seeded Belgian qualifiers Louis Vandecaveye & Gilles Vandecaveye in straight sets as well, 2-0 (21-17, 21-19). The Lille silver was the second Beach Pro Tour medal for the Belgian brothers, after their Ljubljana Futures silver last year.

In the bronze medal match, Krou & Gauthier-Rat bounced back with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) sweep of 11^th-seeded German qualifiers Jonas Sagstetter & Benedikt Sagstetter to collect their third Beach Pro Tour medal, after the Torquay Elite16 gold and the Itapema Challenge silver.

Lille Futures: all results

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