Seven ÖVV teams take part

Beach volleyball: After the Olympics is before the European Championships

Alex Horst (left) and Julian Hörl(Bild: AFP)

Immediately after the Olympic Games, the European Beach Volleyball Championships will take place from Tuesday in The Hague, Apeldoorn and Arnhem. Seven ÖVV teams will be competing and are not among the medal contenders.

The former European champions Anders Mol/Christian Sörum (NOR), who won bronze in Paris, and the defending champions Tanja Hüberli/Nina Brunner (SUI) have withdrawn at short notice. However, the Olympic champions David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig (SWE) are taking part.

Hörl/Horst in
The first group opponents of the top favorites Åhman/Hellvig, who won last year's European Championships in Vienna, will be the Austrian duo Mathias Seiser/Laurenc Grössig on Wednesday. Seiser suffered from gastrointestinal problems at the weekend. The ÖVV line-up is led by Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst, who were eliminated early at the Olympics with three defeats without winning a set. They have the Italians Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava as the strongest team in their preliminary round pool. Timo Hammarberg/Philipp Waller and Florian Schnetzer/Moritz Kindl are also competing.

In the women's tournament, Katharina Schützenhöfer/Lena Plesiutschnig, Dorina Klinger/Ronja Klinger and Franziska Friedl/Anja Trailovic will represent the Austrian colors. The top three from each of the eight groups of four will progress to the knockout phase.