Both gold medals and both silver medals at last week’s CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championships in Izmir, Turkiye went to teams benefiting from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment support. Paul Hohenauer & Martin Poinstingl of Austria and Jara Both & Matilda de Groot of the Netherlands triumphed as continental champions, while Adrien Bezu & Quentin Hypolyte of France and Mariia Shkurat & Marharyta Vapniar of Ukraine finished runners-up. The bronze medals were claimed by German duos – Ben Bockfeld & Hendrik Faber and Sandra Otte & Anna-Chiara Reformat.
Austria’s beach volleyball has 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. France’s beach volleyball department has been granted coach support funding from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment totaling USD 1,119,000 so far. Their men’s national duos are working under the guidance of Brazilian coach Calvis Lopes. The Federation Francaise de Volleyball has also received USD 5,500 in beach volleyball equipment.
Austria’s Paul Hohenauer & Martin Poinstingl and France’s Adrien Bezu & Quentin Hypolyte started their U18 EuroBeachVolley campaigns from Pool H and finished first and second, respectively, on a 2-1 win-loss record each. In the direct clash, the French squeezed out a 2-1 (25-23, 15-21, 15-12) victory.
The Austrians managed straight-set wins in their eighthfinal and quarterfinal matches, before a 2-1 (22-24, 21-14, 15-8) semifinal victory over Switzerland’s Bigler Liam & Luan Walser. Bezu & Hypolyte started the knockouts with a three-set sixteenthfinal win, and had to play two more tie-breakers on the way to the final. The French celebrated a 2-1 (21-11, 20-22, 15-11) win over Germany’s Ben Bockfeld & Hendrik Faber in the semis. The title showdown on Sunday offered a tough battle, which was decided in two narrow sets, 2-0 (27-25, 21-19), the way of Hohenauer & Poinstingl. Just two weeks earlier, 16-year-old Hohenauer also picked up continental bronze in the U20 category. Bezu & Hypolyte, on the other hand, snatched bronze at the 2026 FIVB U18 Beach Volleyball World Championship in the Netherlands.
In the third-place playoff in Izmir, Bockfeld & Faber battled it out for a 2-1 (13-21, 21-17, 15-13) turnaround win over Bigler & Walser to bring home bronze.
The Netherlands Volleyball Federation (Nevobo) has been granted a total of USD 664,000 in national beach volleyball team coach support from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment. Their women’s pairs work under the guidance of Brazilian coach Lucas Motta Palermo. 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 1,046,000.
The Dutch pairing of Jara Both & Matilda de Groot, who took U18 World Championship bronze earlier this summer, dropped only a set in their seven matches played in Izmir, and that was in their 2-1 (21-14, 14-21, 15-10) semifinal victory over reigning U18 world champions Sandra Otte & Anna-Chiara Reformat of Germany. In the gold medal showdown, Both & De Groot produced a 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) win over Ukraine’s Mariia Shkurat & Marharyta Vapniar.
Shkurat & Vapniar suffered only two defeats throughout the tournament, both to the Dutch opponents, and earned silver. In their semifinal, the Ukrainians managed a 2-1 (21-12, 19-21, 15-12) win over Hungary’s Karmen Honti-Majoros & Reka Padar.
The bronze medal game went 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) the way of Otte & Reformat over Honti-Majoros & Padar.
35 men’s and 35 women’s duos representing a total of 35 different federations took part in the CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championships.
