After the World Championships is before the European Championships
European Championships 10 days after FIVB World Championships?
One might wonder why there are European Championships only 10 days after the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Vienna – the biggest event beach volleyball has ever seen – have finished. One might also ask why there are European Championships in beach volleyball every year. In other sports, European Championships are organized every four years (e.g. soccer) or every two years (athletics, handball etc.). The “every other year” set-up might probably make sense because in that case there are no years in which both World and European Championships take place.
Biggest event in a Baltic country so far
Anyway, the Confédération Européenne de Volleyball (CEV) has scheduled the 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final from August 16-20 in Jurmala, Latvia. Jurmala is a scenic beach spot next to the Baltic sea. The event is the biggest beach volleyball event in a Baltic country so far. Latvian star Aleksandrs Samoilovs (who teams up with Janis Smedins) is a local from Jurmala:
“Of course it is a privilege to play a European Championship Final on home soil”.
Smedins/Samoilovs
A smaller version of the Vienna World Championships
However, the event will take place on a much smaller scale than the World Championships in Vienna beginning of August. The centre court will have seats for 3.300 people (compared to 10.000 in Vienna) and participating teams are also changing. Of course the strong non-European teams from Brazil, USA and Canada will not participate. Vienna silver medal winner Clemens Doppler will not start in Jurmala. Therefore his partner Alexander Horst will team up with Julian Hörl to form a new Austrian team. Last year’s silver medal winners Slukova/Hermannova (Czech Republic) had to withdraw from the tournament as well.
On the other hand, current Olympic, World and European Champions Ludwig/Walkenhorst from Germany will try to defend their title. If they succeed once again, it is a European Championships hattrick since they also won in 2015 and 2016. Find more information on the tournament here:
http://www.cev.lu/default.aspx
Beach volleyball isn’t something that I have actually followed but have enjoyed watching when I have seen it on the tv. Are there any teams that I should look out for if I ever get yo watch it?
In general you can always look out for the Brazilian teams, they are really strong. In the women’s competition it is especially Ludwig/Walkenhorst from Germany that showed some amazing play recently.
Hi! Thanks for sharing! I would love to go to this tournament. 🙂
Who do you think will win?
Always a tough question. In the women’s competition Ludwig/Walkenhorst are the ones to beat, in the men’s competition local Latvian heroes Samoilovs/Smedins might have good chances.
Yes, it always is. 🙂
But they aren’t as good as they used to be.
Well, if we talk about Ludwig/Walkenhorst, they had a great comeback in Vienna just two weeks ago. After having injury problems during the whole season, they beat the top ranked teams from Brazil and USA in World Championships finals.
Hi Juan,
Do you know of a good App I can download on my tablet to watch the games?
Thanks for sharing this awesome info, great reading
Yeah good question. There is an official livestream offered by the CEV that you can find here.
But this does not work for countries where the event is shown on TV (e.g. Germany, France etc.). In that case you can go here. Since this stream is for Latvia only, you will need some VPN to avoid geoblocking. You can get a VPN here.
Quite complicated…