Schinias, Greece, June 23, 2019. The Olympic dreams of Sweden and Austria are still alive after they claimed second places at the 2018-2020 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup - Pool D event held at the white sands of Karavi Sports Club in the Greek city of Schinias.  With Greece and Turkey winning their respective finals on Saturday, all focus was on who would be joining them in Phase 2 scheduled for May 2020.

In the women's event, Portugal beat Kosovo and so faced Austria for second place in the group. The teams from Austria dominated the two games, with Katharina Schützenhöfer/Lena Plesiutschnig winning the first match 2-0 (21-9, 21-16) over Juliana Antunes/Tania Oliveira, while in the final match, Ronja Klinger/Katharina Holzer needed 41 minutes to pass Vanessa Paquete/Beatriz Pinheiro in straight sets (21-17, 23-21).

In the men’s competition, the Greek sides of Angelos Mandilaris/Vasileios Mandilaris and Dimitrios Niopas/Thodoris Papadimitriou both beat Kosovo comfortably to set up a clash with Sweden for second place and coveted qualification.  The Swedes came out strong with Martin Appelgren/Alexander Annerstedt and Linus Tholse/Jakob Wijk Tegenrot edging it from the start and striding into the next round.

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