Katowice, Poland, August 31, 2017. Belgium prepare to face Italy in the quarterfinal, supported by their friends and family that arrived to Katowice. In the pool phase of LOTTO EUROVOLLEY POLAND 2017 the opposite Gert van Walle could count on his twin brother, beach volleyball player Tom van Walle.
Tom van Walle and his partner Dries Koekelkoren worked their way up in the Beach Volleyball world in the past years. His visit to Poland comes right after his own 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final, where team Koekelkoren / van Walle finished fourth after losing 1-2 (17-21, 21-17, 11-15) to the Dutch duo Alexander Brouwer / Robert Meeuwsen in bronze medal match. That match came only weeks after their previous encounter when it was Dries Koekelkoren / Tom van Walle who defeated the Dutch team in three sets. Gert van Walle, who was preparing with Belgium national team to #EuroVolleyM, followed his brother’s path in Jurmala from afar, sending support ahead of the semi-finals. “I feel nervous for him and I always hope he will achieve the best he can do and reach the highest possible place. I hope he feels the same for me when I’m competing,” says Gert. A little bit of competition also comes between the two brothers. “We play different kind of sports, but if Tom wins gold, of course I want to set gold medal as my own goal too!”, he laughs about their rivalry.
Their Volleyball journey began over twenty years ago when both brothers joined a small team in their hometown. “We were about seven or eight years old when we started playing Volleyball and we loved it since the beginning,” recalls Gert van Walle. “Once we started playing in the youth national team of Belgium it all started to be a bit more serious.“ Their paths parted years later when the two brothers chose different clubs in Belgian league. Tom van Walle, who played in indoor volleyball as an outside hitter was always keeping an eye on Beach Volleyball. “I always was quite interested in Beach Volleyball. I did my first full season when I was 21 and surprisingly we won the Belgian Championship. I kept playing it a while just to stay busy, as I wasn’t chosen to the indoor national team as my brother was. After a while my colleague asked me if I wanted to start playing Beach Volleyball professionally,” he explains the motives of his decision. “It was the right time to transition - I was part of Top Volley Antwerp, one of the best teams in Belgium, but my body was hurting all the time. I felt I would be better on the beach”.
Tom and his partner Dries Koekelkoren admitted in the past that it wasn’t an easy transition, but two and half years later van Walle is certain that it was the right decision. “My body feels better and the results are coming. We did miss qualification to the Olympic Games in Rio 2016, but this wasn’t really the goal from the beginning, though it is still painful when you are so close to making it. This season we have made a good progress at a few big tournaments. We ended 9th at the World Championship in Vienna, we remain the top team in Belgian Championship and it is crucial for us to sustain the status of the best team from Belgium. We are coming off the European Championship in Latvia, where we finished 4th which is above our expectations.”
Having such busy schedules in different sports, the brothers have very few occasions to see each other throughout the year. “We see each other face to face about 10 times a year,” says Gert. “I would like to see him more often and I hope it will change in the coming season, as I am back to play in Belgian League.” Could they see each other as partners on a Beach Volleyball court? “My twin brother and I played Beach Volleyball together when we were younger, up until the age of 15 or 16, but we always had lots of fights, you know, brothers and especially twins are quite outspoken towards each other and never keep their feelings for themselves,” Tom said last year. Fifteen years later the idea still does not seem so obvious. “I think I’m too far behind now with my Beach Volleyball skills,” Gert laughs on the idea of trying to play together in the future. “I would have to train really, really hard to get to Tom’s level”.
His focus remains on indoor Volleyball, which is a totally different sport in his opinion. With the lead of newly appointed coach Vital Heynen, the ‘Red Dragons’ have had a very busy season, playing two 2018 FIVB Volleyball World Championship - Men - European Qualifications. During the 2017 FIVB World League they missed out on reaching Group 1 Final Six to USA by as little as a set ratio. At the current #EuroVolleyM, undefeated Belgium won Pool D, beating France and Turkey in tie-breaks and The Netherlands in straight sets. In the quarterfinal they will be facing Italy. “I know they have a good team and what makes them strong is that they have a good bench as well as the starting six. When you play teams of such high level like France you need a bit of luck sometimes, but they showed they know what to do against such rivals,” Tom finishes evaluating Belgium ahead of the coming phases.
Belgium will compete against Italy on Thursday 31 August at 20:30 CET.
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