The top-seeded Italian teams grabbed the trophies for both genders at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event that finished with Sunday’s finals in Lecce. Margherita Bianchin & Claudia Scampoli topped the women’s podium, while Davide Benzi & Carlo Bonifazi celebrated victory in the men’s tournament.
On the women’s side, the silver went to sixth-seeded Katarzyna Kociolek & Marta Lodej of Poland and the bronze – to second-seeded Maia Najul Rosas & Cecilia Peralta of Argentina. Czechia’s Krystof Jan Oliva & Tadeas Trousil, seeded seventh, collected the men’s silver medals, while second-seeded Ha Likejiang & Wu Jiaxin of China completed the podium with bronze.
Bianchin & Scampoli went through the women’s main draw tournament undefeated in five matches, but they had to cope with three-set battles coming back from a set down in each of their two games on Sunday. In one of the semifinals, they defeated Canada’s Darby Dunn & Olivia Grace Furlan by 2-1 (16-21, 21-14, 15-9). Then, in the final, the Italians persevered on the way to a 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 15-10) victory over Kociolek & Lodej. For Bianchin and Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic silver medallist Scampoli, it was the second Beach Pro Tour medal as a team. They also topped the podium at the Giardini Naxos Futures last year, after picking up a couple of 1-star golds on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour as well.
Kociolek & Lodej crowned a series of four wins in Lecce with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) shutout of Najul and Peralta in the semifinals before taking on Bianchin & Scampoli in the gold medal match. The Poles settled for silver, which was their third Beach Pro Tour medal, but the first earned outside Poland, after last year’s silver medals at the Futures stops in Warsaw and Muslowice.
Najul & Peralta took the bronze after a hard-fought 2-0 (25-23, 21-17) shutout of Dunn & Furlan in the third-place match. This way, they repeated their success from last year’s Lecce Futures, when they also finished third to claim their first and only previous bronze on the Beach Pro Tour.
