CEV U18 beach volleyball european championship comes to Kazan

Beach sports summer in the capital of Tatarstan is in full swing: in July the city hosted the All-Russian Beach Games 2017, where Russian Beach Volleyball Cup took place as a test event in the lead-up to the major international tournament – U18 Beach Volleyball European Championship.

On August 23-27 the best European volleyball pairs represented by the athletes up to 18 years will compete at the venue of the Beach Sports Centre located by the Aquatics Palace.

Kazan will bring together 64 teams (32 men's and 32 women's) from 35 countries (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Lithuania, Norway, Turkey, Ukraine,Switzerland and others). Six teams will represent Russia on the tournament: 3 men's and 3 women's teams. The championship will be evaluated by 16 international and 28 national judges.

The CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championship is held annually under the auspices of the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV).

In 2016, the Championship was held in Brno (Czech Republic), where Sergey Gorbenko/Vasily Ivanov and Olga Kozhadey/Elena Fediunova of Russia claimed silver medals, where the German and Czech players topped the podium, respectively. In 2017, the CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship took place in Baden, Austria, where Russian players Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin and Nadezda Makroguzova/Svetlana Kholomina confidently topped the podium and took gold. The CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship will take place in Vulcano, Italy, in September 2017.

In Kazan team Russia will be represented by Elizaveta Ludkova/Kristina Kukushkina, Anna Movchan/Olesia Andreiuk, and Mariia Bocharova/Maria Voronina at women's tournament; and Nikolay Chukhnenkov/Aleksei Arkhipov, Denis Shekunov/Timur Ermotik, and Pavel Shustrov/Alexey Gusev at men's competitions.

The tournament kicks off in the capital of Tatarstan on August 23. The Day 1 will feature the qualification tour, the group stage will follow the next two days, and play-off will start from August, 26. The winners of the Championship will be revealed on August 27.

The CEV tournaments have already been held in Kazan before - in 2011, the Tatarstan capital played host to the CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup.