2019-06-07 09:00:00 CEST
The week in the sands of the world
Austrian stars Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst will try to defend the title they won last year in Baden
Okay, we get it. After following the drawing of lots earlier this week, all you want to know about is the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Hamburg 2019 presented by comdirect and ALDI Nord, right?
We share the same feeling, believe us, but with the first serve at the Rothenbaum Stadium not happening in three weeks, all we can do until then is to follow the players who will compete for the medals in Hamburg in other tournaments around the globe. Come on, it’s not that bad, is it?
To make your life even easier, here’s where some of them will be balling this weekend:
World Tour in China and Austria
Most of the beach volleyball elite won’t be competing internationally this weekend, but there are a few exceptions as the World Tour continues in China, with a women-only two-star tournament taking place in Nanjing, and Austria, which will host a double-gender one-star event in Baden. World Champs-bound Cubans Leila Martinez/Mailen Tamayo and Germany’s Leonie Körtzinger/Sarah Scheinder will play in Asia, while Austria’s Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst and Robin Seidl/Philipp Waller and Japan’s Yuya Ageba will be in action in Baden.
Cubans Leila and Mailen will compete in China for the second-straight week (Photocredit: FIVB)
Continental Cup in Europe and NORCECA Tour
Play at the continental level will happen in Novi Sad, Serbia, and Laz Paz, Mexico. The Serbian city will host Pool A of Phase 1 of the European Continental Cup, in which the hosts will battle Belarus, Romania and San Marino in the men’s event and Sweden, Israel and Albania among the women, while the Mexican city will be stage of a NORCECA Tour stop, in which several nations from the region will compete. Even if no World Championships-bound athletes are entered to play at either event, it should be a couple of good ones to follow.
Serbians Milic and Klasnic will defend their country in Novi Sad (Photocredit: FIVB)
National Tours in the USA, the Netherlands and Switzerland
Three of the most relevant National Tours in the world will be taking place this weekend when the American AVP lands in New York, the Dutch Tour heads to Zutphen and the Swiss Tour kicks off in Lucerne. Sanne Keizer/Madelein Meppelink and Joy Stubbe/Marleen van Iersel will both compete in their home sand, while the New York tournament will see eight of the nine USA’s teams who have qualified for Hamburg - and an international partnership between American Brooke Sweat and Canadian Brandie Wilkerson - in action.
Social Media: The Maritime Match
Since the World Championships are the subject of this week’s Beach Shorts, we couldn’t leave the iconic photoshoot The Maritime Match out of it, could we? After all, it’s not every day that two of the best teams in world play beach volleyball in a pontoon court filled with 75 tonnes of sand right at the heart of the River Elbe, agreed?
In case you missed it
Pools set for the World Championships
Are these the toughest pools in Hamburg?
Relive the Brazilian glory at the 2011 World Championships
See you next week!