Geneva Futures top four claimed by FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries (original) (raw)
- All four semifinal spots at the Geneva Futures were occupied by FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries
- France’s Canet & Rotar top the podium
- Switzerland’s Metral & Jordan and Haussener & Friedli take silver and bronze
The top four places in the final standings of last week’s Beach Pro Tour Geneva Futures in Switzerland were occupied by teams benefitting for FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support. 19-year-old Arthur Canet (pictured in the main photo; credits: cev.eu) and 20-year-old Teo Rotar swept all five of their matches to claim the team’s second gold and third medal on the Tour, after picking up silver and gold at the Montpelier Futures at home in France in 2022 and 2023. Two pairs from Switzerland, Quentin Metral & Jonathan Jordan and Yves Haussener & Julian Friedli, completed the podium, while another French duo, Elouan Chouikh-Barbez & Tom Altwies, took fourth place.
France’s national beach volleyball pairs have been trained by a fully staffed coaching team, headed by Brazilian specialist Lissandro Carvalho, with coach support funding from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment totalling CHF 795,000 so far. Swiss Volley’s beach volleyball department has so far been allocated CHF 216,000 in coach support from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment. Polish instructor Lukasz Fijalek is training their men’s national pairs.
Canet & Rotar, U19 world champions in 2021, demonstrated great form in Geneva and defeated all five of their opponents on the way to the gold medal in straight sets. In Sunday’s semifinals, the third-seeded pair from France mastered an emphatic 2-0 (21-13, 21-13) win over seventh-seeded compatriots Chouikh-Barbez & Altwies, before defeating fourth-seeded Metral & Jordan for the trophy in a 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) straight-set final.
Teo Rotar on the block against Jonathan Jordan during the Geneva Futures final (Photo credits: cev.eu)
For the recently formed Swiss duo, it was the second consecutive Beach Pro Tour silver. They reached the final of the Spiez Futures, also in Switzerland, earlier this month. Metral & Jordan cruised to the Geneva final on a run of four straight-set wins in a row, crowned by a 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) semifinal victory over second-seeded Haussener & Friedli, the same pair they lost to in the Spiez final.
Haussener and 17-year-old Friedli bounced back with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-15) sweep of the third place match against Chouikh-Barbez & Altwies, beating the 22-year-old French opponents for the second time at this tournament, after a three-set victory in their pool’s winners’ match. The bronze medal was the duo’s second medal on the Tour.
The 2024 Geneva Futures men’s podium (Photo credits: cev.eu)
There was a French team and a Swiss team among the four pairs that finished in fifth place as well, Joadel Genevieve-Gardoque & Keran Duval and Florian Breer & Marco Krattiger, respectively.
24 men’s teams from 17 different countries took part in the Geneva Futures. The next Futures event will take place in Baden, Austria from 26 to 30 June.