Stam & Schoon of the Netherlands earn Tepic Elite16 silver with FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach Frank van den Outenaar
Brunner & Huberli and Barbara & Carol take women’s gold and bronze respectively, in Mexico
Ahman & Hellvig, Stein & Wanderley and Diaz & Alayo line up on the men’s podium in that order
FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands (pictured in the main photo) claimed the women’s silver at last week’s Beach Pro Tour Elite16 stop in Tepic, Mexico. Switzerland’s Nina Brunner & Tanja Huberli celebrated their first-ever Beach Pro Tour gold. Brazil’s Barbara Seixas & Carol Solberg took the bronze.
Extending an amazing run of seven consecutive major-tournament finals, Sweden’s David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig topped the men’s podium. Two teams, emerging from the qualification bracket – Brazil’s Andre Stein & George Wanderley and Cuba’s Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo – took the silver and the bronze respectively.
The Nederlandse Volleybalbond has so far been allocated a total of CHF 437,000 from the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment programme, of which CHF 144,000 was invested in national beach volleyball teams coach support. Their beach duos regularly prove themselves as some of the best in the world.
The Tepic Elite16 2024 women’s podium
Trained by 38-year-old Dutch coach Frank van den Outenaar, Stam & Schoon took to the Tepic courts aiming to secure their eighth Beach Pro Tour medal and they got it. Seeded sixth in the main draw, the Tokyo 2020 Olympians reached the final on a five-game winning streak, crowned by a 2-0 (23-21, 21-10) semi-final victory over 10th-seeded Marta Menegatti & Valentina Gottardi of Italy. In the gold medal match, Stam & Schoon became the only team that managed to win a set from Brunner & Huberli of Switzerland in Tepic. However, the Swiss pair persevered through an epic tie-breaker to claim a 2-1 (21-14, 19-21, 19-17) victory. Stam & Schoon have now picked up a total of three gold, three silver and two bronze medals in their Beach Pro Tour collection.
Reigning European champions Brunner & Huberli are in a tight race with another two pairs from Switzerland for one of the two women’s tickets to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games their country can book. The pair had previously collected two silver and two bronze medals on the Beach Pro Tour. Seeded ninth in the main draw, they stormed the Tepic podium, riding the wave of six back-to-back wins and dropping only a set in the final. In their semi-final match against Seixas & Solberg, Brunner & Huberli mastered a 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) sweep.
Seixas & Solberg recovered by defeating Menegatti & Gottardi in an epic third-place game, in which each of the sets, and the tie-breaker in particular, was pushed into overtime, 2-1 (22-20, 21-23, 25-23). Seixas & Solberg of Brazil Beach Pro Tour showcase now features six gold, four silver and two bronze medals.
Hellvig on the block against George in the Tepic Elite16 men’s final
22-year-old Ahman & Hellvig, dubbed the Swedish jump-setters, reached their seventh back-to-back final at a major international competition. This remarkable run started in August with the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship gold and went through the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in Mexico, the 2023 Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha and the Elite16 events in Hamburg, Joao Pessoa, Doha and now Tepic. They have now won five of these seven consecutive finals and their Beach Pro Tour tally has improved to seven golds, three silvers and one bronze medal.
Top-seeded Ahman & Hellvig produced six wins in a row to top the Tepic podium, but had to resort to tie-breaker wins in both their 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 20-18) semi-final against fifth-seeded Clemens Wickler & Nils Ehlers of Germany and the 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 15-10) final against 15th-seeded Stein & Wanderley.
Stein & Wanderley’s Tepic campaign started with two qualifier victories on Wednesday. Their winning streak was extended with another five main draw victories, the last one of which they delivered a 2-1 (19-21, 21-15, 15-12) semi-final comeback against another team that started from the qualifiers, 13th-seeded Diaz & Alayo. Stein & Wanderley’s Beach Pro Tour record now boasts four gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
The young pair from Cuba, Diaz & Alayo, are on an impressive streak of four consecutive final-four finishes on the Beach Pro Tour. In Tepic, they registered their first-ever Elite16 main draw appearance and managed to secure the bronze. Despite ups and downs between the qualifiers and the semi-finals, Diaz & Alayo reached the podium after a 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) sweep of the third-place game against Wickler & Ehlers.
The Tepic Elite16 2024 men’s podium
25 men’s and 23 women’s teams representing a total of 21 different countries took part in the Tepic Elite16. This week the Beach Pro Tour visits Xiamen, China for a Challenge event from 25 to 28 April, while the next Elite16 stop is in Brasilia, Brazil from 1 to 5 May.
Tepic Elite16: results and standings