Qualifiers from Denmark Mollgaard & Hovmann reach their first Beach Pro Tour podium with FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support
Italy’s Caminati makes an impressive return to the international beach volleyball stage, winning Madrid Futures gold with Krumins
Poland’s Rudol & Lejawa take the bronze
Denmark’s Mads Mollgaard & Nicolai Hovmann (pictured in the main photo; credits: cev.eu), who benefit from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support, achieved their first Beach Pro Tour medal last week. They started the Madrid Futures tournament in Spain from the qualifiers and made it all the way to the final to earn silver. Italy’s Davis Krumins & Marco Caminati celebrated the gold medals, while Poland’s Maciej Rudol & Filip Lejawa took the bronze.
Volleyball Denmark’s beach volleyball department has so far been allocated a total of CHF 41,000 from the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment programme; CHF 36,000 for coach support of their national beach volleyball teams, and 5,000 for beach volleyball equipment. Their pairs have been coached by Martin Olesen and Robert Zuchowski.
29-year-old Danes Mollgaard & Hovmann, seeded second in the qualification bracket and then 10th in the main draw, lost only one match on the way to the Madrid Futures final, to second-seeded duo of the main draw, Elouan Chouikh-Barbez & Tom Altwies of France, in their pool winners’ game. In their last step towards the gold medal showdown, the pair from Denmark came back from a set down against seventh-seeded Rudol & Lejawa to celebrate a 2-1 (17-21, 21-17, 15-12) victory and secure their first-ever Beach Pro Tour medal. In the final, Mollgaard & Hovmann lost to another duo that made their way there from the qualifiers, Krumins & Caminati of Italy.
Nicolai Hovmann on the block against Maciej Rudol (Photo credits: cev.eu)
By winning gold in Spain, Marco Caminati made an impressive return to the international beach volleyball stage. After many seasons on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour partnering with the likes of Alex Ranghieri and Enrico Rossi, the 31-year-old Italian had not appeared at any world or continental-level events since 2019, with a sole exception at the Cervia 1-star tournament in 2021. However, he made a brilliant Beach Pro Tour debut last week in Madrid, where he and his current partner, 33-year-old Davis Krumins, started from the qualifiers and made their way to the top of the podium. Krumins & Caminati entered the tournament as the 12th seed in a 14-team qualification bracket and stormed through the event on a seven-win run, dropping only two sets along the way. As the 13th-seeded team in the main draw, the Italian duo beat all their opponents on the way to the gold, including Chouikh & Altwies with a 2-1 (12-21, 21-11, 17-15) comeback in the semi-finals.
In Sunday’s final, Krumins & Caminati produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) victory over Mollgaard & Hovmann to triumph as tournament winners, while Rudol & Lejawa bounced back with a 2-1 (16-21, 21-16, 15-11) win over Chouikh & Altwies to claim the bronze. The bronze was the first podium on the Tour for both Rudol & Lejawa, while making their debut as a duo.
The Madrid Futures men’s podium (Photo credits: cev.eu)
26 men’s pairs representing 16 different countries took part in the Madrid Futures last week. The Spanish capital will host a women’s Futures tournament this week, from 16 to 19 May, while another two double-gender Futures events take place on the same dates in Wuhan Qingshan, China and Cervia, Italy.
Madrid Futures: results and standings