Luxembourg, Luxembourg, May 19, 2014. The CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup one-year-long campaign is now completed. After a total of 163 matches, played on nine different venues in nine different countries, nine different national federations earned the right to represent Europe in beach volleyball’s inaugural tournament at the Youth Olympics. The second summer edition of the Games will take place in Nanjing, China from August 16 through 28 with the participation of 32 teams per gender, among which duos from France, Germany, Russia, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine.
The CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup went underway back on June 1, 2013 with the matches of Pool D in Baden from the zonal phase of the competition. Seven more zonal tournaments were held through August 25, with the participation of 34 national federations on the women’s side and 32 on the men’s side, to determine the line-up for the decisive final.
Two teams per gender from the organizing country Turkey joined the 16 qualifiers from the zonal phase at the brand new TVF Mediterranean University Beach Volleyball Center in Antalya on May 16 and 17, 2014, to participate in the final battles for Nanjing tickets. Due to the national mourning after a coal mine tragedy in Turkey, the matches in Antalya had to be rescheduled from a three-day to a two-day time span and even the 14 matches per gender that were supposed to determine the cup and medal winners at this inaugural event were cancelled. But the tournament served its main purpose – to determine Europe’s beach volleyball contingent for the 2014 Youth Olympics.
After the end of the final in Antalya three delegations were the happiest of all as they succeeded in qualifying both their teams for the Games in Nanjing. Curiously, it was the same country, Germany, which won the very first women’s spot and the very first men’s spot at the Olympics. Indeed, Sarah Schneider / Leonie Welsch and Niklas Rudolf / Eric Stadie were the first ones to finish their job in the crucial second elimination round. Soon after them, the women’s team of Héléna Cazaute / Aline Chamereau and men's team Arnaud Loiseau / Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, respectively, stamped France’s tickets to China in both genders. Russia was to follow as the 2013 U18 women’s European champions Daria Rudykh / Nadezda Makroguzova and the 2013 U18 men’s European champions Oleg Stoyanovskiy / Artem Yarzutkin secured their country’s double presence on Nanjing sand.
The other three teams, for which the women’s 2014 CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup final ended with success, were Irene Enzo / Michela Lantignotti for Italy, Katerina Valkova / Kristyna Adamcikova for the Czech Republic and the Turkish pair Esra Betul Cetin / Selin Yurtsever who managed to bring joy to the home fans in Antalya.
The other three countries that qualified for the men’s beach volleyball tournament at the Youth Olympics were Ukraine, Finland and Poland, whose duos Oleh Plotnytskyi / Illia Kovalov, Miro Määttänen / Santeri Siren and Dominik Kmiecik / Jakub Macura, respectively, achieved what they had travelled to the Mediterranean coast for.
Click here for detailed information and photos from the CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup.