Teams confirmed for EuroBeachVolley

All 24 teams that will represent Europe at the Tokyo Olympics have confirmed their participation in the A1 CEV EuroBeachVolley presented by Swatch, from August 11-15, in Vienna, as the entry lists with the 32 duos in each gender for the continent’s premier annual tournament have been released.

The 2021 edition of the EuroBeachVolley will feature as many as 60 Olympians, including the 26 men and the 22 women that will play in the Tokyo Games right before making the trip to Vienna to compete for continental glory. A total of 18 nations will take part in the event in the Austrian capital.

Leading the men’s entries are Norwegian stars Anders Mol and Christian Sørum, the three-time defending EuroBeachVolley champions. The Beach Volley Vikings will enter the tournament in Austria with the goal of becoming the first team in history to win four-straight editions of the European Championships.

“We already made history by winning three in a row it was such a difficult thing for us to achieve,” Sørum said. “Just to be in a position in which we can take it even further a win a fourth title is unbelievable and would probably be the most difficult achievement of our careers.”

Besides the Norwegians, the men’s entry list includes seven other players who have already experimented the feeling of being at the top of the continent – Italians Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai (three times each), Austrian Clemens Doppler (two), Spanish Pablo Herrera (two) and Adrian Gavira (one) and Latvians Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins (one each).

Host country Austria will feature a strong roster in the event with five teams entered – Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz, Robin Seidl/Philipp Waller, Alexander Huber/Christoph Dressler, Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst and Julian Hörl/Laurenz Leitner.

Swiss Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré, the 2020 EuroBeachVolley winners, will also be back to try and defend their title. They could become just the second team to win back-to-back editions of the tournament joining Germans Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst, who topped the podium in 2015 and 2016.

“To be able to call myself European champion makes me very proud,” Heidrich commented. “Our victory last year was like turning a dream in reality, it’s the title with the greatest weight in my career so far.”

Joining the Swiss as past European champions in the event will be Ludwig (four golds), Greek Vasiliki Arvaniti (two), Dutch Sanne Keizer, Madelein Meppelink and Marleen van Iersel (two each), Italian Marta Menegatti (one) and Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka (one each).

Four teams will represent the home country in the tournament as Lena Plesiutschnig/Katharina Schützenhöfer, Teresa Strauss/Nadine Strauss, Ronja Klinger/Dorina Klinger and Franziska Friedl/Eva Pfeffer are all entered in the EuroBeachVolley.

On Thursday, another important moment will happen with the Drawing of Lots for the 2021 European Championships taking place at Vienna’s town hall. The event will start at 5pm CEST and will be live streamed across our social media channels.

2021 EuroBeachVolley Teams

Men

Anders Mol/Christian Sørum (Norway), Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner (Czech Republic), Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak (Poland), Adrian Carambula/Enrico Rossi (Italy), Stefan Boermans/Yorick de Groot (the Netherlands), Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Viacheslav Krasilnikov (Russia), Christiaan Varenhost/Steven van de Velde (the Netherlands), Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai (Italy), Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov (Russia), Julius Thole/Clemens Wickler (Germany), Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (the Netherlands), Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins (Latvia), Grzegorz Fijalek/Michal Bryl (Poland), Adrian Heidrich/Mirco Gerson (Switzerland), Marco Krattiger/Florian Breer (Switzerland), Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz (Austria), Martins Plavins/Edgars Tocs (Latvia), Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira (Spain), Nikita Liamin/Taras Myskiv (Russia), Robin Seidl/Philipp Waller (Austria), Alexander Walkenhorst/Sven Winter (Germany), Nils Ehlers/Lukas Pfretzschner (Germany), Aliaksandr Dziadkou/Pavel Piatrushka (Belarus), Kusti Nolvak/Mart Tiisaar (Estonia), Alexander Likholetov/Ruslan Bykanov (Russia), Alexander Huber/Christoph Dressler (Austria), Dries Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle (Belgium), Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst (Austria), Quincy Aye/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat (France), Vladyslav Iemelianchyk/Sergiy Popov (Ukraine), Jakob Windisch/Samuele Cottafava (Italy), Julian Hörl/Laurenz Leitner (Austria).

Women

Joana Heidrich/Anouk Vergé-Dépré (Switzerland), Nadezda Makroguzova/Svetlana Kholomina (Russia), Nina Betschart/Tanja Hüberli (Switzerland), Tina Graudina/Anastasija Kravcenoka (Latvia), Marketa Sluková/Barbora Hermannová (Czech Republic), Sanne Keizer/Madelein Meppelink (the Netherlands), Chantal Laboureur/Cinja Tillmann (Germany), Liliana Fernandez/Elsa Baquerizo (Spain), Julia Sude/Karla Borger (Germany), Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth (Italy), Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider (Germany), Laura Ludwig/Margareta Kozuch (Germany), Kinga Wojtasik/Katarzyna Kociolek (Poland), Marleen van Iersel/Pleun Ypma (the Netherlands), Raisa Schoon/Katja Stam (the Netherlands), Lena Plesiutschnig/Katharina Schützenhöfer (Austria), Mariia Bocharova/Maria Voronina (Russia), Paula Soria/Maria Carro (Spain), Riikka Lehtonen/Niina Ahtiainen (Finland), Vasiliki Arvaniti/Penny Karagkouni (Greece), Esmee Böbner/Zoé Vergé-Dépré (Switzerland), Ksenia Dabizha/Daria Rudykh (Russia), Angela Lobato/Daniela Alvarez (Spain), Ekaterina Birlova/Anastasiia Frolova (Russia), Michala Kvapilová/Michaela Kubicková (Czech Republic), Sunniva-Helland Hansen/Ane Hjortland (Norway), Taru Lahti-Liukkonen/Anniina Parkkinen (Finland), Teresa Strauss/Nadine Strauss (Austria), Dorina Klinger/Ronja Klinger (Austria), Lezana Placette/Alexia Richard (France), Ingrid Lunde/Emilie Olimstad (Norway), Franziska Friedl/Eva Pfeffer (Austria).