Marco Caminati made an impressive return to the international beach volleyball stage by winning gold at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Madrid Futures. 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 Spain, 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.

Another team that emerged from Thursday’s qualifiers, Denmark’s Mads Mollgaard & Nicolai Hovmann, also reached the final to earn silver, while the bronze went to Poland’s Maciej Rudol & Filip Lejawa.

Krumins & Caminati entered the Madrid Futures as the 12^th 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 13^th-seeded team in the main draw, the Italians upset all their opponents on the way to the gold, most notably second-seeded Elouan Chouikh-Barbez & Tom Altwies of France, with a 2-1 (12-21, 21-11, 17-15) comeback in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, 29-year-old Danes Mollgaard & Hovmann, seeded second in the qualification bracket and 10^th in the main draw, lost only one match on the way to the final, to Chouikh & Altwies in their pool winners’ game. In their last step towards the gold medal showdown, the Danish pair 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 Sunday’s finale, Krumins & Caminati produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) sweep 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 and also achieve the first podium on the Tour for either of them, while making their debut as a duo.

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 May 16 to 19, while another two double-gender Futures events take place at the same time in Wuhan Qingshan, China and Cervia, Italy.

Madrid Futures: results and standings

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