Impressions from the 2017 Beachvolleyball World Championships

Hi, people out there on the courts,
it's now a week that we're back from Vienna, where we assisted to the Beachvolleyball World Championships, and it's time to give you our impressions. Under a ruthless sun that gave us a hot week with temperatures up to 37, 38 degree celsius, we saw a lot of fascinating games. In comparison to the last games I saw on this level, 4 years ago in Poland, the game has got more spectacular and fast than ever. 4 years ago, we had a first impression of the impact of the more permissive approach to the pass technique. Indeed, the dutch team Brouwer / Meeuwsen getting world champion in 2013, was very much due to the faster passes this team played. And now, 4 years later, it's very usual to see very fast passes at a distance of 6 meters as we know from indoor volleyball, as well as passes behind the back or passes with both feets in the air. This, at least in the men's category, but you can also notice a big change in the women's category, where you used to see a lot of digging passes, that now have quite disappeared. And a team like Ludwig / Walkenhorst, who are physically very strong, also use a lot of passes in the back. The result is a beachvolleyball that never has been faster, what gives some spectacular action and need faster and more responsive players in defense as well in the block. And of course, the classic lessons of beachvolleyball have to be rewritten. Difficult change for old school - players like me :-) and a big challenge to raise.

In the women's category, the women team Ludwig / Walkenhorst of Germany confirmed their exceptional playing level with the worldchampion title after the olympic gold medal in Rio last year, by beating the US-Team Ross / Fendrick in the finals by 2-1. Brazilian team Larissa / Talita, which are still well in the business, finally won the bronze medal against a very strong canadian team Pavan / Humana-Paredes, which you should watch out in the future.

Concerning the brazilian teams, if 2015 was an exceptional success with 3 brazilian teams on the podium, 2017 was quite disappointing with best result the bronze medal of Larissa / Talita and Antonelli / Carol with a 5th place.
Then there was a positive suprise from a cuban team. Lidy Echeverria / Leila played a very athletic and physic beachvolleyball. 
We enjoyed a lot their matches and with a final 9th place I think they should be quite satisfied, as their main problem for the moment is, from my point of view, a lack of experience. Hopefully, they get the necessary support from Cuba for the future. For sure, their athletic and fast gameplay, despite their relatively small height, should match the new approach to arbitration.

In the men's category, brazil confirmed its outstanding status as the beachvolley nation, by putting the young team Evandro / Loyola on top of the podium. But the most exceptional performance came from the austrian duo Doppler / Horst, who reached the finals after some exhausting and very tight matches. Was that the effect of the third man - the austrian public - that made some incredible noise? Perhaps, but as both said: "we have not lost gold but we won silver", and I am personally very happy for both guys that played their 6th and 9th world championships. After all these years (20 for Clemens Doppler), they played their very best beachvolleyball and deserve very much their silver medal. It was only the strong service of Evandro, who took 100% of risk in the last points, that overcame the austrian duo. Congrats to both finalists.
The rest of the brazilian teams did not quite so well, and I think that there is quite a lot of deception for the teams Alison / Bruno and Solberg / Guto that both left the tournament in eighth final (9th place).
From Cuba, we got another big surprise with the team Gonzalez / Diaz, despite the fact that they finished "only" on the 9th place, by loosing against Varenhorst / Van Garderen (finishing on 4th place with Van Garderen starting his beachvolley only this year !!). Gonzalez / Diaz played some very good games, winning even against a team like Álvaro Filho / Saymon (Seed #1). If Sergio Gonzalez plays in a very constant way without a lot of faults, his young partner Nivaldo Diaz lacks perhaps some experience to put his strong play on a more constant level. Again, hopefully, we can see this team next year on the World Tour, if the cuban government gives some support.
The second, very young cuban men's team (Quesada / Piña from Ciego de Avila), had a very complicated start in the tournament as they had their most important game right in the beginning. With a lot of pressure, unfortunately they lost against Virgen / Ontiveros from Mexico, and that was already practically the end of the tournament, as the two other teams in the pool were definetely too strong (Evandro / Loyola World Champions and Varenhorst / Van Garderen 4th place). Bad luck for the young cubans. Keep on working and fighting!

That's about the sport, but we also need to comment here on this blog about the tournament itself. As you will for sure read in every newspaper, the world championships were a huge success with a perfect organization. It's clear that with 35.000 people on the Danube Island, and without any minor problem with the tournament organization or with the security, we cannot say that Mr. Jagerhofer did not a good job with his team. But we deplore a lot the impression, that these world championships were first of all a big money making machine. For now more than 10 years, I am attending the Beachvolley World Championships, and I never had such problems to get my seat on the center court. After buying tickets for the last 4 days (Thursday - Sunday), I realized that the tickets for all games beside the medal games were only to give you an access on the Danube Island. So you are paying between 16 and 85 EUR (depending on the day), only to get an access to the medal games (4 games - 2 women and 2 men) and for the rest of the games you only have a guarantee of access to the many stands of selling all and nothing and to a big screen to watch the games on television outside of the centre court. In my eyes this is absolutely not in the spirit of the sport that always gave an access (with a very fair price) to the real beachvolleyball enthousiasts, travelling around the world to see their idols. The center court containing max 10.000 people, the organizers have knowingly sold 25.000 tickets to people that had no chance of getting a seat at the center court !! But this makes 25.000 people standing around between the selling stands of drinks and mostly Red Bull drinks. Big money for sure.
Another point was the control at the entrance: you only had the right to have 1 small bottle of soft plastic (without the plug). The argumentation was: no material that could be used as projectile. But what about my bottle of suncream - the perfect projectile? This was allowed !!?? Bad people who think that the point was mostly selling drinks to people !! NO, Mr. Jagerhofer, even if you are now treated as the Organization God, this is not a correct way to treat peaceful people watching beachvolleyball, where I never have seen people throwing something on the courts.
It's true that nowadays, this is the way, security is handled in many big events. But we had in Vienna, the same week, the contradictory example at the Vienna Film Festival, where you get excellent food and drinks, served in real glasses and plates without need to pay a deposit. And the mood was of the most relaxed between people, perhaps because the organizers have trusted their guests and treated them as responsible people.
To all Beachvolley Tournament Organizers: please keep in mind where this sport comes from and what is its spirit. And try to select your public with focus on responsible beachvolleyball enthousiasts and not party making people. For sure, there is less money to make, but less problems also.
See you on the beach court
La lucertola