Beach volleyball teams from Europe dominated the first-ever World Tour event in Bulgaria taking home four of the six medals in play in the one-star tournament that ended on Sunday in the country’s capital Sofia.
The men’s tournament saw an all-European podium with Russia’s Maksim Hudyakov/Aleksandr Kramarenko been flanked by Poland’s Jakub Nowak/Maciej Rudol and Portugal’s Hugo Campos/Joao Pedrosa during the awarding ceremony.
The Russians won their first tournament as a team after they defeated the Polish, who were playing together for the first time, 2-0 (21-18, 21-13) in the final. They finished the tournament without losing a single set.
The 20-year-old Portuguese claimed their first World Tour medal with a 2-0 (25-23, 21-15) victory over Poland’s Jedrzej Brozyniak/Piotr Janiak in the bronze medal match.
The women’s tournament also had an all-European bronze medal match with Austrian sisters Dorina and Ronja Klinger downing Cyprus’ Erika Nystrom, a Finnish-born player with more than 150 World Tour events of experience who was playing in her first event for the country, and Daria Gusarova 2-0 (21-17, 21-14).
It was the second World Tour medal for the 23-year-old Dorina and the 20-year-old Ronja, who had claimed in another one-star tournament in Langkawi, Malaysia, in March 2020.
The women’s gold medal went to American qualifiers Corinne Quiggle and Allie Wheeler, who posted a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) victory over Venezuela’s Norisbeth Agudo and Gabi Brito to secure the title.
