A triumph for Poiesz and Piersma as U21 world champions
The FIVB Volleyball Empowerment program has benefited a number of teams, including two of the teams that took home medals from the FIVB U21 Beach Volleyball World Championships in Thailand last week. These include the recent world champions in the women’s division, Desy Poiesz and Brecht Piersma of the Netherlands, and the bronze medal winners in the men’s division, Arthur Canet and Teo Rotar of France.
Following their victory over Timo Hammarberg and Tim Berger in the final, Joppe Van Langendonck and Kyan Vercauteren of Belgium won the men’s title. The women’s silver and bronze medals went to Leona Kernen and Annique Niederhauser of Switzerland and Malgorzata Ciezkowska and Urszula Lunio of Poland, making it an all-European sweep of the podiums.
The 20-year-olds advanced through the Roi Et tournament, taking the first six of their seven matches in straight sets. Their lone loss came in the extra time of the Pool C tiebreaker against Kernen and Niederhauser, who they faced again in the gold medal match on Sunday (seen in the main picture) and defeated convincingly 2-0 (21-14, 21-16). In the semifinals earlier in the day, the Dutch aspirants demonstrated even more resolve as they easily defeated Ciezkowska and Lunio 2-0 (21-16, 21-7). It was Poiesz and Piersma’s second podium together on an international level. They won bronze in the CEV U20 European Championship the previous year.
18-year-old Kernen and 20-year-old Niederhauser suffered a three-set loss to begin their campaign in Roi Et, but they recovered to win six straight games, the highlight of which was a 2-1 (15-21, 21-14, 15-9) comeback victory over Yan Xu and Zhou Mingli of China in the semifinals. After winning silver at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures in Baden earlier this year, the duo’s amazing performances propelled them to the title match against the Dutch and earned them their second international medal.
After an injury during the tie-breaker forced their Chinese opponents to withdraw from the third-place match, 18-year-old Ciezkowska and 19-year-old Lunio brought the bronze back to Poland. It was their second significant podium together, having taken home the gold at the U20 European Championship in August.
Having already triumphed as U19 world champions in 2021 and U20 European champions in 2023, in addition to collecting three more medals from major age-group championships, Canet and Rotar confidently reached the U21 semifinals in Thailand, dropping only a set in the five matches along the way. They bounced back from a 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 15-11) semifinal upset at the hands of Van Langendonck and Vercauteren with a 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-12) victory over Brazil’s Pedro Sousa and Henrique Camboim in the third-place game to snatch the bronze.
In order to win the gold, Van Langendonck and Vercauteren had to overcome Hammarberg and Berger 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-13) in the final to complete the tournament undefeated.
Alternatively, the 19-year-old Austrians added their first world championship medal to their collection after already winning four medals from different age-group European Championships, including gold for the U20 team in 2022. Hammarberg and Berger defeated Pedro and Henrique 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) in the semifinals to advance to the Thailand final after winning six straight games.
A total of 91 teams representing 46 countries from all five Continental Confederations took part in the U21 World Championships.
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