Pairs from the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment supported federations of Austria and Sri Lanka picked up medals at zonal beach volleyball tournaments last week.
MEVZA Beach Volleyball Tour in Schladming, Austria
Teams from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment supported Austria occupied five of the six podium spots at last week’s MEVZA Beach Volleyball Tour stop, which the country hosted in Schladming (pictured in the main photo; source: mevza.org). Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger, Philipp Waller & Moritz Pristauz-Telsnigg and Mathias Seiser & Christoph Dressler swept the men’s medals, while Dorina Klinger & Ronja Klinger and Magdalena Rabitsch & Oleksandra Shkarupa took the women’s gold and silver. Slovenia’s Tjasa Kotnik & Tajda Lovsin claimed the bronze.
Austria’s beach volleyball has so far been allocated USD 168,000 in coach support from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment, in addition to USD 6,000 for a national beach volleyball team coach development knowledge transfer program. Greek coach Georgios Kotsilianos has been in charge of their men’s national duos, while Brazilian coach Tie Santana has been training the women’s national teams.
Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger lost their first sets of the zonal tournament in Schladming in the semifinal against another Austrian team – qualifiers Maximilian Trummer Lorenz Petutschnig, which they won by 2-1 (13-21, 21-19, 15-6), and in the gold medal showdown against Philipp Waller & Moritz Pristauz-Telsnigg, which they won by 2-1 (17-21, 21-17, 15-11) to triumph as Middle European zonal gold medalists.
In the other semifinal, Waller & Pristauz put together a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) victory over Mathias Seiser & Christoph Dressler, who then went on to claim the bronze in an all-Austrian 2-0 (21-19, 22-20) third-place match against Trummer & Petutschnig.
Dorina Klinger & Ronja Klinger did not drop a single set in the five matches they played on the way to the women’s gold. They crowned their perfect run with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-12) shutout of Slovenia’s Tjasa Kotnik & Tajda Lovsin and a 2-0 (21-11, 21-11) sweep of the all-Austrian final against Magdalena Rabitsch & Oleksandra Shkarupa.
In their semifinal, Rabitsch & Shkarupa put together a 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-12) win over Slovakia’s Martina Terenova & Zuzana Reginova to complete a four-game winning streak towards the final showdown.
Kotnik & Lovsin defeated Terenova & Reginova by 2-0 (21-11, 21-13) to bring home the bronze.
Women’s results and standings
27 men’s and 27 women’s pairs from Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Israel, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Slovenia took part in the MEVZA Tour stop in Schladming.
CAVA Beach Volleyball Tour in Thimphu, Bhutan
Dileepa Senarathna & Sadun Madusanka Fernando, representing the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment funded federation of Sri Lanka, triumphed as Central Asian zonal gold medalists at the CAVA Beach Volleyball Tour in Thimphu, Bhutan. Two Indian pairs – Barath Sonu & Rajesh Vinayagamoorthy and Udaya Suriyan Poonthamizhan & Abithan Senthilkumar – completed the men’s podium. Another two Indian duos – Deepika Kandasamy & Pavithra Sudalaikasi and Revathy Velayoudame & Swetha Vairakannu – made the women’s podium with gold and bronze, with Nepal’s Bhavana Dangi & Sunita Rai in between.
The Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation has been granted USD 10,500 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their men’s national teams in beach volleyball trained by Turkish coach Onur Ergenc.
Sri Lanka’s Dileepa Senarathna & Sadun Madusanka Fernando cruised through the tournament in Thimphu without losing any sets in the four matches played. They hammered out a 2-0 (21-13, 21-12) sweep of their semifinal against India’s Udaya Suriyan Poonthamizhan & Abithan Senthilkumar. In the gold medal match, the Sri Lankan duo mastered a 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) shutout of another Indian team – Barath Sonu & Rajesh Vinayagamoorthy.
Barath & Rajesh also reached the final without dropping a set. They won their semifinal against Bhutan’s Jurme Rangdal & Tshering Dorji by 2-0 (21-11, 21-13).
In the bronze medal playoff, Udaya & Abithan achieved a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) win over Jurme & Dorji.
India’s Deepika Kandasamy & Pavithra Sudalaikasi won all five of their matches in the women’s tournament to celebrate the CAVA title. They took a 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) semifinal victory over Nepal’s Kamala Pun & Kopila Rana and a 2-1 (17-21, 21-14, 15-5) victory over another Nepali duo, Bhavana Dangi & Sunita Rai, in the final showdown.
Bhavana & Sunita claimed a 2-0 (21-15, 24-22) win over India’s Revathy Velayoudame & Swetha Vairakannu in the other semifinal to set up another encounter with Deepika & Pavithra after losing to them in pool.
The bronze went to Revathy & Swetha, who squeezed out an epic 2-1 (22-20, 19-21, 16-14) victory over Pun & Kopila in the third-place game.
Women’s results and standings
11 men’s and 10 women’s pairs from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan took part in the CAVA Tour stop in Thimphu.
