Beach Shorts: The week in the sands of the world

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German Olympic champion Kira Walkenhorst returns after shoulder and hip injuries

Welcome to another edition of Beach Shorts! Our weekly column brings to you all the news that are echoing in the beach volleyball world right now and for this week we’ll discuss an Olympic world champion returning to the sands, yet another change involving Brazilian teams (this one outside the courts), a World Tour event in China and a crazy photoshoot which you might have already seem somewhere out there.

Join us and let’s do it!

Kira returns this weekend

Sidelined since her victory with Laura Ludwig on last year’s World Tour Finals, in Hamburg, German star Kira Walkenhorst returns to the sands this weekend in the first stop of the National Tour in Münster. With Laura set to give birth, the Olympic champion, who recovered from shoulder and hip injuries, will play with 21-year-old blocker Leonie Körtzinger. Other top German teams, such as Julia Sude/Chantal Laboureur, Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider and Karla Borger/Margareta Kozuch are all confirmed in the event, which will also feature a pair on international tandems in Switzerland’s Tanja Huberli/Nina Betschart and Slovakia’s Natalia Dubovcova/Andrea Strbova.

German Volleyball on Twitter

Kira has announced her new partner for the 2018 #beachvolleyball season: It´s the 21 years old block player Leonie Körtzinger💪

A new coach for Agatha and Duda

Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk and Duda Lisboa announced this week they’ve parted ways with veteran coach Letícia Pessoa. The three-time Olympic silver medalist trainer was in charge of them since the start of their partnership, in 2017. Marco Char, who used to work as a statistician for the Brazilian teams in the World Tour and was part of Alison Cerutti’s and Bruno Schmidt’s coaching staff during the Rio 2016 Games, will be their new coach.

Marco Char was part of Alison and Bruno's staff during their victorious Rio 2016 campaign

World Tour remains in China

It is a quiet week in the FIVB World Tour with just one tournament happening this week. Nantong is the fourth of six Chinese cities to host beach volleyball events this season as the Gangzha District stages 35 women’s teams from 20 countries to a two-star tournament until Sunday. China’s Xinxin Wang/Xinyi Xia, Brazil’s Lili Maestrini/Josi Alves and Russia’s Ksenia Dabizha/Daria Mastikova are the top-seeded teams in the event.

Nantong hosts a World Tour stop for the second consecutive season (Photocredit: FIVB)

Social Media: Serve the Sky

This week there was no competition for this spot. Our Serve the Sky photoshoot is the most amazing thing beach volleyball-related you’ll see for a while. Having Austrian legends Clemens Doppler and Alex Horst and Norwegian rising stars Anders Mol and Christian Sørum together would already be amazing, but we took it to another level by making them play 215 feet in the air, atop Vienna’s iconic Riesenrad Ferris wheel, as the city prepares to host the A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch from August 1-5 on the Danube Island.

In case you missed it

Brouwer and Meeuwsen up to a strong start of season

Crabb/Mayer and Mizoe/Hashimoto win their second World Tour golds

National Tour champions crowned in Europe

See you in a week!