29/04/2015 18:24
Beach Volleyball’s back on European sand with Continental Cup 3rd Round!
2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup - Men & Women
Luxembourg, April 29, 2015. The 2015 Beach Volleyball season is set to get underway this week with as many as five tournaments on schedule for the 3rd Round of the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup. The eventual winners of the events due to take place in Baden (Austria), Thessaloniki (Greece), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Fethiye (Turkey) will move on straight to the finals scheduled for next year and make it a step closer to the fulfilment of their Olympic dream. The second and third-placed teams will have another chance to stay in contention for a spot in the Beach Volleyball competition of the 2016 Rio Games via the 4th Round which is set to follow later this year.
The upcoming tournaments will be covered extensively also on the CEV’s Facebook page and Twitter account, make sure you also use the official hashtag #CEVContinentalCup!
Though the international season got started already last week with the FIVB Fuzhou Open in China, the upcoming tournaments on schedule for the 3rd Round of the Continental Cup coincide with the opening of a busy campaign on European sand which is set to reach its climax with the inaugural European Games in Baku (June 16-21) and the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final in the sport’s ‘Mecca’, Klagenfurt (July 28-August 2).
With the 3rd Round of the Continental Cup, the top eight nations from the CEV Country Ranking finally enter the competition and this adds more flavour to the events taking place throughout the coming weekend and next week as well. A good share of Europe’s Beach Volleyball elite will take the sand and carry the hopes of their countries to get it closer to a spot in the Olympic tournament that next year will be hosted at Copacabana beach, one of the most iconic venues of the Rio Games.
The Austrian city of Baden is well-known to the Beach Volleyball family for hosting a number of international events in recent years and this is where the actions will get started already on Thursday with the matches on schedule for Pool B which includes teams from Russia, Ukraine, Scotland, as well as pairs from Norway and Bulgaria in the men’s and women’s competition respectively. The home heroes and heroines of Austria will then try to delight their fans on Saturday and Sunday as in Pool A they take on duos from Portugal and Azerbaijan with the Czech Republic and Sweden entering the competition with their male and female teams.
Lithuania’s capital Vilnius will welcome again an international competition after playing host also to one of the 1st Round events last year; this time around the task will be much more difficult for the home teams with their toughest competitors in Pool F likely to be the ladies from the Czech Republic and the men’s teams from Poland.
After hosting last year’s U22 European Championship, Turkey’s seaside resort Fethiye will welcome the Continental Cup as well with the Latvian men and Swiss ladies headlining Pool H where Poland and Belgium complete the field for the women’s tournament whilst the home heroes of Turkey will have to stand the opposition brought also by England and Croatia.
Germany is Europe’s leading Beach Volleyball power and their status was further cemented last week at the Fuzhou Open where they won gold and silver with their men and women respectively. They will debut in the second edition of the Continental Cup later this weekend in Thessaloniki being joined there by hosts Greece, Belarus as well as by teams from England (only women) and Romania (only men).
Click here for further information on the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup
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