All You Need to Know About the European Beach Volleyball Championships in Vienna

Status: 08/02/2023 10:33 a.m

Mode, favourites, German teams: Everything you need to know about the European Beach Volleyball Championships in Vienna.

When and where does the Beach Volleyball Championship take place?

The Beach Volleyball European Championship 2023 will be held in Vienna from August 2nd to 6th, 2023. The game is played on the Danube Island.

Which German teams are there?

The German Volleyball Association (DVV) is represented by five teams in Austria. Laura Ludwig/Louisa Lippmann, Svenja Müller/Cinja Tillmann, Karla Borger/Sandra Ittlinger and Leonie Körtzinger/Lea Kunst start among the women. The men are represented by the national team Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler.

How is the EM mode?

There are 32 teams each for women and men. In the eight groups of four, the group games are played in the so-called modified pool play. The top-seeded team plays the lowest-seeded team in the group, while the second-seeded and third-seeded teams also meet in the first round.

The winners of these matches play for the group victory and thus for direct entry into the round of 16. A decisive “win or go home” match awaits the losers of the first pool game. All runners-up and third-placed teams fight for the remaining round of 16 tickets in the so-called single elimination round.

Against whom do the German teams have to compete?

As the draw in the Austrian capital revealed, Ludwig and Lippmann will initially meet the Finnish duo Niina Ahtiainen/Taru Lahti-Liukkonen in Pool B. In pool A there is a German duel between Borger/Ittlinger and Körtzinger/Kunst.

The duo Müller/Tillmann will play in Pool D against the Austrians Franziska Friedl/Katharina Schützenhöfer. The men’s team Ehlers/Wickler starts in pool F against Timo Hammarberg/Tim Berger from Austria.

What chances do the German teams have?

Rio Olympic champion Ludwig wants to work her way up to the top of the world with her partner Lippmann. The duo wants to convince with good performance – the placement plays a rather subordinate role. “Of course it’s also a highlight of the season, but it’s just the next step in our process,” said the 37-year-old before the start: “And that’s the most important thing that we see it that way.”

In November, Ludwig returned to the sand after her baby break, since then she has been working her way up to the top of the world with Lippmann step by step. A week and a half ago, the duo reached the quarterfinals at the Challenge tournament in Edmonton, the “2nd division” of the Pro Tour – an encouragement.

“There was a bit of self-confidence,” said Ludwig. With such a tournament, you “rewarded yourself a bit and said: ‘Okay, that’s the right way.'” The event in Canada was only the eighth joint appearance of the German duo. “That’s not much,” emphasized the four-time European champion, everyone still has to “find their role”.

“Paris is the goal. We definitely want to achieve that,” said the 2016 Olympic champion. The optimism about qualification is there, but: “It will also be a lot of work in the next few months. We mustn’t talk too much about it think about it, otherwise we’ll waste our energy.”

Svenja Müller/Cinja Tillmann, who came third in the 2022 World Cup, took fourth place at the Elite16 tournament in Gstaad at the beginning of July and want to build on this result in Vienna. Karla Borger has good memories of Vienna: In 2021 she won EM bronze there alongside Julia Sude.

Who are the favourites?

That’s difficult to say, because in Vienna there are numerous top stars of the scene at the start. Three Olympic champions, five world champions, 16 European champions, nine Olympic medalists and 32 Olympic participants are among the 128 athletes from 19 countries.

Defending women’s champions are Anastasija Samoilova and Tina Graudina from Latvia and men’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, who triumphed in Munich last year.

What is the German EM balance?

In the past, German teams have won 36 medals at European Beach Volleyball Championships: 24 medals for women and twelve for men. Most recently, Karla Borger and Julia Sude won bronze in Vienna in 2021. Nadja Glenzke and Julia Großner won the last European Championship title in 2017.

2023-08-02 08:47:14
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