Beach Shorts: The week in the sands of the world

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Italians Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai are the reigning European champions

Hello, beach volleyball fans! After taking a break last week for the Swatch Major Gstaad, your weekly column in back with all the information you need about our beloved sport. It’s a pretty important week for teams from several countries as the European Championships are going on in the Netherlands, but the World Tour is still ongoing too.

While the top teams in the world gear up for the A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch, which is set to start in just 10 days, here is what you should keep an eye on.

Euros underway in the Netherlands

The 32 best European teams in each gender are competing for the continental title as the European Championships started on Sunday and will end in two days in the Netherlands. The event has four different venues as the matches are spread among Apeldoorn, Rotterdam, Utrecht and the Hague, which host the finals this weekend.

World Tour heads to Asia

After the Gstaad Major, the World Tour headed to Asia for another week of competition. Haiyang, the seventh Chinese city to stage an event this season, is part of the Tour for the first time as it hosts a double-gender three-star tournament with 72 teams in contention. In Ulsan, Korea, 16 tandems compete in the women-only one-star event.

Nine Chinese teams are competing in the home sand of Haiyang (Photocredit: FIVB)

Emanuel to be Role Model in Youth Olympics 

Beach volleyball legend Emanuel Rego was selected to be one of the Athlete Role Models for the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games. The Brazilian, who owns three Olympic medals, including a gold, will visit the Argentinean capital to inspire the young athletes and tell them about the value of representing their country in the Olympic Movement.

Buenos Aires 2018 on Twitter

@Emanuel_Volei 🇧🇷🏐, three-time Olympic medalist 🥇🥈🥉, will be one of the Athlete Role Models 🌟 who will visit us this October to inspire our young athletes. 👏 Find out more about him 👉https://t.co/Vsh7U6E7Ca

Social Media: A different challenge for Brouwer and Meeuwsen

Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen are pretty good in beach volleyball and we all know that, but the Dutchmen picked up a new challenge recently in what can be considered a mix between volleyball and handball. Curious to see how they did?

@tessiewester stoomt @brouwermeeuwsen klaar voor het EK Beachvolleybal in 🇳🇱 Beachvolleybal vs. handbal, wie gaat er winnen? 🏐 #Eurobeachvolley #EKbeachvolleybal #beachvolley #handbal

1,173 Likes, 8 Comments - Red Bull (@redbullned) on Instagram: "@tessiewester stoomt @brouwermeeuwsen klaar voor het EK Beachvolleybal in 🇳🇱 Beachvolleybal vs...."

In case you missed it    

Italian Paolo Nicolai enters the record books

German Lars Flüggen has a new partner

Joana Heidrich to miss the rest of the season

Gstaad Major’s medalists climb rankings

See you next week!