Duos from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment supported Ukraine took men’s gold and bronze at the Budapest Futures on the Beach Pro Tour, while program beneficiaries from Hungary and Lithuania finished first and third in the women’s competition. Ivan Likhatskyi & Richard Likhatskyi, Bulgaria’s Dimitar Mehandzhiyski & Dimitar Kalchev and Sergiy Popov & Illia Tiurin lined up on the men’s podium, while Stefania Kun & Lilla Villam (pictured in the main photo; source: cev.eu), Norway’s Nina Pavlova & Sunniva Helland-Hansen and Skalve Krizanauskaite & Rugile Grudzinskaite grabbed the women’s medals.
The FIVB Volleyball Empowerment program has been supporting the Ukraine Volleyball Federation in continuing its volleyball and beach volleyball activities since 2022 as part of an ongoing Memorandum of Understanding, which has so far provided total funding of USD 983,000.
Ivan Likhatskyi & Richard Likhatskyi celebrated their first Beach Pro Tour gold, which they added to a collection of two bronze medals as a team. The ninth-seeded Ukrainians started off in Budapest with a loss to Dimitar Mehandzhiyski & Dimitar Kalchev in their opening pool match, but then went on a five-match winning streak crowned with a 2-0 (21-10, 21-13) sweep of the final against the very same Bulgarians. Before that, in the semifinals, the Likhatskyis squeezed out a nail-biting 2-1 (21-15, 24-26, 17-15) victory over fellow Ukrainians Sergiy Popov & Illia Tiurin.
In the other semifinal, eighth-seeded Mehandzhiyski & Kalchev shaped up a four-game winning streak that led them to the final with a tight 2-0 (23-21, 21-19) straight-setter against fifth-seeded Austrians Michael Mario Klemen & Elias Holzinger. The silver medal earned was Bulgaria’s best ever achievement on the Beach Pro Tour. The only previous medal the southern European country had was last year’s Sveti Vlas Futures bronze Mehandzhiyski & Kalchev achieved on home sand.
Two teams that emerged from the qualifications met in the third-place playoff. 10th-seeded Popov & Tiurin beat Klemen & Holzinger by 2-0 (22-20, 21-10) to decorate Tiurin’s Beach Pro Tour debut in bronze.
The Hungarian Volleyball Federation’s beach volleyball department has been allocated USD 168,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national teams. The Hungarian women’s duos are trained by Brazilian coach Leopoldo Sindice Da Silva. Another USD 6,000 was granted for a national team coach development knowledge transfer program and USD 5,500 for beach volleyball equipment. The Lithuanian Volleyball Federation’s beach volleyball department has so far been granted a total of USD 477,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national duos, and another USD 12,000 for national team coach development knowledge transfer programs. Their pairs have been training under the guidance of Paulius Matulis, Latvia’s Aigars Birzulis and Austria’s Simon Nausch.
Hungary’s Lilla Villam and 20-year-old Stefania Kun earned their second Beach Pro Tour gold, after last year’s triumph at the Balikesir Futures, and their fourth podium. They won all five of their matches in front of the home fans in Budapest. On Sunday, the top-seeded home favorites squeezed out a nail-biting 2-1 (18-21, 25-23, 18-16) semifinal win over fourth-seeded Clara Windeleff & Astrid Mellmolle of Denmark, and followed up with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-11) sweep of the gold medal match against third-seeded Nina Pavlova & Sunniva Helland-Hansen of Norway.
In their semifinal, the Norwegian duo produced a 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) win over Lithuanian qualifiers Skalve Krizanauskaite & Rugile Grudzinskaite to secure their second Beach Pro Tour medal. The first one was also silver.
Krizanauskaite & Grudzinskaite crowned their Beach Pro Tour debut as a team with bronze, starting from the qualifications and going through the tournament on a 6-1 win-loss record. They bounced back from their semifinal defeat with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-13) victory over Windeleff & Mellmolle in the third-place game.
27 men’s and 23 women’s pairs representing 25 different countries took part in the Budapest Futures.
The next Futures stop on the Beach Pro Tour will be held in Corigliano Rossano, Italy from September 17 to 20.
