Beach Pro Tour back to Africa with Cape Town Elite
The Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour returns to the African continent with the Cape Town Elite, serving off on Wednesday with the qualification matches.
South Africa is set to host the 11th Elite event on the 2025 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour this week, from Wednesday, October 22, to Sunday, October 26. It will also be the first Elite event on the African continent since Cape Town welcomed an Elite16 event during the inaugural Beach Pro Tour season in November 2022.
Pool Breakdown
The 2025 Cape Town Elite men bracket is topped by rising Swedish stars Jacob Holting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson, the number five team in the FIVB World Ranking. They will lead Pool A, which also features Brazil Adrielson Dos Santos and Arthur Da Silva and Mozambique José Alberto and Mondlane and Osvaldo Mungoi, to be joined by a team arising from the qualifications on Wednesday morning.
The number three team in the World Ranking, Evandro Oliveira and Arthur Mariano Lanci of Brazil, will headline Pool B. Germany Lukas Pfretzschner and Sven Winter will also compete in Pool B. The third known pair to play in that pool is Czechia Tadeas Trousil and Jiri Sedlak.
Powerful Dutchmen Steven van de Velde and Alexander Brouwer will lead Pool C awaiting a team from the qualifiers to be their first opponent in the main draw. In the other Pool C opener, USA Robert Harrison and Cody Caldwell will take on Brazil Adelmo Folha and Mateus Dultra.
Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers of Germany will star in Pool D. If they beat a team from the qualifications in the first leg of pool play, they will meet the winner of the game between Brazil Vinicius Freitas and Heitor Barbosa and South African wild cards Kemoloile Otsweleng and Mthokozisi Mndingi.
Pool E will have two members arising from the qualifiers. They will challenge France Remi Bassereau and Calvin Aye and Norway Mathias Berntsen and Hendrik Mol in the first-leg matches of the pool.
Similarly, in Pool F, Austria Timo Hammarberg and Tim Berger and Germany Paul Henning and Lui Wust are waiting to find out their first opponents.
Qualification Round
A number of high-caliber duos are set to contest the qualifications on Wednesday morning to fill up the remaining main draw vacancies. The list includes the likes of:
- USA Hagen Smith and Logan Webber
- Norway Nils Ringoen and Even Aas
- France Elouan Chouikh-Barbez and Joadel Gardoque
- Austria Alexander Horst and Moritz Pristauz
The men qualifiers are set to get underway at 08:00 local time (06:00 UTC).
Once the main draw serves off on Wednesday afternoon, modified pool play format will determine the three teams per pool that will advance to the elimination rounds, which will eventually lead to Sunday medal matches in Cape Town.
Credit: volleyballworld.com
