Luxembourg, March 8, 2017. Three more Satellite tournaments were recently added to the 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball calendar – with events set to take place in Kharkiv (Ukraine), Siofok (Hungary) and Larnaca (Cyprus) on the same weekends these cities will host a tournament on schedule for the first stage of the 2017-2018 CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup.
The Ukrainian city of Kharkiv will welcome a CEV men’s only Satellite event on July 7-9. The local organisers have decided to host a European event for the first time in history. The venue set up at Gorky Park, a popular place among the Kharkiv citizens as well as tourists, has played host to the final stage of the Ukrainian Beach Volleyball national championship for three years in a row and last summer the EEVZA Beach Volleyball Tour stopped there as well.
The Organising Committee expect many athletes from a number of countries to travel to Kharkiv and enjoy the competition taking place right close to the city centre in a festive atmosphere. A CEV Satellite is returning to Ukraine for the first time after the country’s capital Kyiv played host to a European event back in 2010.
As for Siofok, the Hungarian city on the southern bank of Lake Balaton will be making its maiden appearance on the European Beach Volleyball map. Siofok is the largest and most visited holiday resort on Lake Balaton, also known as the ‘Hungarian Sea’. It is well known for its crowded beaches and busy nightlife. Siofok has a long history when it comes to hosting national and international beach sports events, including Beach Volleyball competitions. The CEV men’s Satellite will be taking place at the local Beach Arena (pictured above), which was built in 2014 with the aim to host beach soccer tournaments. It can accommodate up to 1,500 fans and is equipped with everything needed to host night matches – so action can continue under floodlights as well. The CEV Satellite will be taking place in Siofok on July 14-16 alongside one of eight events on schedule for the first stage of the CEV Youth Continental Cup, thus accounting for a real Beach Volleyball festival on the shores of Lake Balaton.
If Kharkiv and Siofok are quite new destinations, Larnaca is already pretty well known on the European and global Beach Volleyball map since it hosted the 2014 and 2016 editions of the FIVB U19 and U21 Beach Volleyball World Championships respectively as well as the 2015 CEV U20 European Championships. The women’s only CEV Satellite in Larnaca due to take place on August 4-6 will further raise the popularity of Beach Volleyball in Cyprus, as the Mediterranean island offers ideal conditions for the sport to grow and flourish.