Beach Shorts

Hello, beach volleyball fans! This is a big weekend for our sport in Europe as the Latvian coastal city of Jurmala hosts the 2020 European Championships, possibly the most important tournament to survive the wave of cancelations caused by the coronavirus pandemic this year.

It’s also a special weekend in South America, where beach volleyball officially returns with a Brazilian Tour event in the city of Saquarema. An accomplished European coach switching allegiances is also one of our subjects this week, so go ahead and get all the info you need below:

European crown in play in Jurmala

After playing in their national tours for most of the summer, the elite of beach volleyball in Europe is gathered in Jurmala, Latvia, for the 2020 edition of the European Championships. The tournament started on Tuesday and, after facing an entire day of matches postponed on Thursday due to inclement weather, ends on Sunday. Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Kravcenoka and Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum are the defending champions and both teams remain in contention.

Brazilian Tour restarts in Saquarema

After six months of suspension, the Brazilian Tour restarts this week in Saquarema, a city located less than 100 kilometers away from Rio de Janeiro. The tournament, only for the women in this first week, will be run in the “bubble” system with all players remaining inside the country’s Federation training center for the duration of the event. Brazilian top teams of Agatha Bednarczuk/Duda Lisboa, Ana Patricia Ramos/Rebecca Silva, Talita Antunes/Carol Solberg and Barbara Seixas/Carolina Horta are all competing.

Daniel Wood to coach Swiss National Team

Experienced Spanish coach Daniel Rodriguez Wood will be at the helm of the Swiss men’s national team program replacing the departed Markus Egger starting in November. Wood, who successfully worked with teams in his native Spain and Germany, was most recently coaching Dutch Marleen van Iersel and Joy Stubbe and Germans Chantal Laboureur and Sandra Ittlinger.

Social Media: Keep it going, Vicky!

Veteran Greek star Vasiliki Arvaniti, who came back from retirement in 2019 and was recently fighting an Achilles’ injury, is making progress on her return to the sand. After nearly one year outside of competition, she should be ready to go when tournaments restart at the international level.

Well done!

 

 

 

 

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Almost a year to jump.. this feeling is amazing even though is the beginning 😇🤩😁🙏🙏🙏 #smilealways #goodvibesonly #blessed #rehabtime🙏 #believe #trusttheprocess🙏 #athleteslife #beachvolley #athleticlabgr

A post shared by Vicky Arvaniti (@vickyarvaniti) on Sep 15, 2020 at 2:59am PDT

See you next week!