Ljubljana, Slovenia, July 24, 2017.  Running three separate competitions within one event holds a number of logistical challenges, however the organisers in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, embraced the opportunity and can look back with pride at what was achieved.  This may be the 4th time that 520 tonnes of sand has been dumped onto Kongresni trg square, but this was the first time the event had such significance.  While the focus was rightly on what happened on the court, a number of actions took place away from the spotlight aimed at providing further access into some of the leading Beach Volleyball players on the continent and the sport in general.

In the ever developing landscape of media and communications, gone are the days when a players role is solely about what they do in the public eye on the court.  Their role in helping grow the awareness of Beach Volleyball extends to nearly all aspects of their life, and never more so than when the spotlight is already shining on them at top events.

As they usually do, all players on-site embraced this while you can find the complete collection of what has been released so far on the CEV social media platform. 

To give a small insight, here are some of the highlights from the weekend:

Eventual Gold Medallists, Anders Berntsen Mol and Christian Sandlie Sørum from Norway let us follow them as they explored the city:

We also tested the knowledge of the players about their partners:

As well as getting them to tell us who between them is the answer to certain questions in "Player vs Player", where below we did this with Anika Krebs & Lena Ottens from Germany:

We gave the pen to Bronze Medallist Adriana-Maria Matei and asked her partner Beata Vaida (both from Romania) to model for her... check out the result!

The added benefit of actions like this is that additional material was collected and further videos will be released over the coming days and weeks.  So keep looking out for more exclusive and entertaining content from Ljubljana!

During the lead into the event the organiser ran an on-line contest looking for the most impressive 5 Volleyball sets.  To see the full collection just search for #Set4Vball on social media, while here is the eventual winner: