The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals will again rock Hamburg’s Rothenbaum stadium

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Hamburg will once again move to the samba beat of beach volleyball in 2018 when it hosts the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals for a historic second successive season.

The northern German city will welcome capacity crowds, a Copacabana feel and the world’s elite beach volleyball players between August 14-19 when the stars battle for a share of the highest prize in the sport – a cool 800,000 US Dollars.

Last season 66,000 fans packed the iconic Rothenbaum stadium for five days of breathtaking action where the top prize and the gold medals went to the USA’s Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena and home heroes Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst, the German superstars and reigning World and Olympic champions.

Legendary American pair Lucena/Dalhausser stunned newly crowned World Champions Andre Loyola Stein and Evandro Gonçalves Oliveira Junior of Brazil to lift the men’s title, but the story of the week undoubtedly belonged to Laura and Kira.

Just two weeks after claiming their first world title in Vienna, Hamburg’s finest – who had missed a large chunk of the 2017 season through injury – edged a dramatic women’s final, beating Brazilian challengers Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa in the women’s final to claim gold.

“We’re thrilled to hear that the World Tour Finals are coming to Hamburg again,” said a delighted Ludwig.

“Beach volleyball is hugely popular throughout Germany and especially in Hamburg. It’s a place we call home, we love it here and the support we received in the past two tournaments here was unbelievable.

“I am sure the fans will come out in their numbers again to support us. We can’t wait.”

The 2018 World Tour Finals will be the fourth edition of beach volleyball’s end-of-season showpiece, which has previously been held in Fort Lauderdale in 2015 and Toronto in 2016 prior to the 2017 event in Hamburg.

The World Tour Finals in Hamburg will bring the curtain down on the 2018 beach volleyball season, during which the world’s best beach volleyball athletes compete at three five-star Beach Major Series tournaments, in Fort Lauderdale, Gstaad and Vienna.

2018 Beach Major Series season:

Fort Lauderdale Major (USA) February 27 – March 4
Gstaad Major (Switzerland) July 10-15
Vienna Major (Austria) July 31 – August 5
Hamburg Finals (Germany) August 14-19