Beach Pro Tour News And Updates | Volleyball World

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Spectacular dive during the Warsaw Futures final (source: cev.eu)

Austria’s Laurenz Leitner & Paul Pascariuc started off their Warsaw Futures campaign with a loss to Stefan Andreasson & Anton Andersson, but then earned the opportunity to meet the Swedes again in the final and got back at them to claim their second Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour gold, after the Al-Alamein Futures victory last summer. The bronze went to England’s Frederick Bialokoz & Issa Batrane.

In their first pool-stage match of the men’s tournament in the Polish capital, the 24-year-old Austrians were not only pushed to a third set by Swedish qualifiers Andreasson & Andersson, but lost the tie-breaker by a narrow 15-13. Sixth-seeded Leitner & Pascariuc got back on the winning track and, four consecutive victories later, they were up against the 11th-seeded Swedish opponents in a direct battle for gold. Once again, the match went to a crucial third set, only this time the 15-13 final score was in favour of the Austrians for a 2-1 (13-21, 21-15, 15-13) comeback.

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Leitner & Pascariuc show off their Warsaw Futures gold medals (source: cev.eu)

Before that, in the semifinals, Leitner & Pascariuc produced a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) win over Bialokoz & Batrane to secure the team’s third Beach Pro Tour podium. Interestingly, third-seeded Bialokoz & Batrane were also in the same pool for the start of the main draw and also suffered a loss to Andreasson & Andersson before recovering with two wins in a row to reach the semifinals.

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Swedes, for whom it was only the fourth time competing on the Beach Pro Tour, entered the tournament from the first qualification round and went on a run of six wins in a row, crowned by a hard-fought 2-1 (22-20, 18-21, 15-13) semifinal victory over seventh-seeded Robert Juchnevic & Artur Vasiljev of Lithuania, to pick up their first medal.

Bialokoz & Batrane, who had won gold at the Halifax Futures a week earlier, claimed a 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-12) win over Juchnevic & Vasiljev in the third place match to take their second consecutive and fourth overall Beach Pro Tour medal.

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The men’s 2024 Warsaw Futures podium (source: cev.eu)

28 teams representing 16 different countries took part in the men’s Warsaw Futures. A women’s Futures tournament will take place in Warsaw from September 5 to 8. On the same dates, the Qidong Futures will welcome athletes from both genders to China.