First phase of CEV Nations Cup and AVC Continental Cup underway
The qualification journey for the Olympic beach volleyball tournament at Paris 2024 via the continental pathway is now in full swing in Europe and Asia. Allocating one Olympic berth per gender per Continental Confederation, Europe’s CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup and Asia’s AVC Continental Cup are now well underway with the first phases of the two competitions.
Europe
The participating countries in the CEV Nations Cup have been split into seven pools per gender for the preliminary phase of the competition, taking place in a country versus country format between 12 May and 11 June 2023 at various locations across Europe, with the pool winners qualifying for the 2023 Nations Cup Finals. The top three teams of the Finals will then qualify for the 2024 Nations Cup Final Olympic Qualification Tournament.
The tournaments in two women’s and two men’s pools have already been completed.
The competition started with the men’s Pool F event held in Gstaad, Switzerland on 12 and 13 May with the participation of the national teams of Germany, Luxembourg, Moldova, Switzerland and Türkiye.
Germany and hosts Switzerland reached the final match-up. Adrian Heidrich and Leo Dillier put the home team ahead with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) victory over Robin Sowa and Lukas Pfretzschner in the first rubber, but Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers leveled it up with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) shutout of Quentin Metral and Yves Haussener in the second. In the deciding golden set, Heidrich and Dillier mastered a 15-10 win over Ehlers and Wickler to propel Switzerland to the Finals.
Men’s Pool F results and standings https://www.cev.eu/beach/nations-cup/2023/qualifiers-men/pool-f-gstaad-sui/#matches
Tense action in the men’s Pool F final between Switzerland and Germany (Photo credits: cev.eu)
Austria were the second nation to book their spot in the Finals after winning the Pool E tournament held in Madrid, Spain on 15 and 16 May. In the final match-up, the Austrians prevailed over Lithuania with two straight-set victories. Julian Horl and Philipp Waller mastered a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) shutout of Arnas Rumsevicius and Artur Vasiljev in the first rubber, and Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz hammered out a 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) sweep of the second rubber against Audrius Knasas and Patrikas Stankevicius. Spain, Slovenia and Croatia lined up in the places from third to fifth in the final pool standings.
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