Litomerice, Czechia, June 2, 2020 – Czech beach volleyball players were probably envied by their counterparts around the world this past weekend as the European country restarted competition after the global suspension of play caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Between Saturday and Sunday, the nation hosted the first events of its national tour with the women playing in Litomerice and the men competing in Strahov. Two-time Olympian Marketa Slukova, who won the female tournament with partner Barbora Hermannova, appreciated the opportunity to get back to competition after months of limited activity.
“We were definitely very blessed and lucky to be able to compete this early,” Slukova told fivb.com. “I’m grateful that Tipsport, who sponsor the tour, and our federation found a way and stepped up during these difficult times. I know the situation in Europe is slowly getting back to normal, but other countries haven’t been this lucky yet. I love playing and competing and it was a great chance to do what I love. It definitely made me forget at least for a while about all the difficulties we had to and will still have to overcome with this pandemic.”
The 31-year-old Slukova, who has six World Tour gold medals to her name, hopes the feelings she experienced last weekend can quickly expand around the globe with more and more countries returning to an active mode as the pandemic is controlled.
“Czech people love to do sport, to be active and also to watch and follow sport events and athletes,” she added. “Sport really does have the power to unite people and getting back to competing and in general to being allowed to play sports gives us all hope things are slowly but surely getting back to normal.”