Tournament in Mexico
Beach volleyball: Big disappointment after the World Cup exit
Nils Ehlers and his partner Clemens Wickler were eliminated from the World Cup in the round of 16. photo
© Soeren Stache/dpa
The medals at the Beach World Cup in Mexico will be distributed without the German teams. The last two duos are in the round of 16. The outlook towards the Olympics remains optimistic.
Disappointed, but with a combative look in her eyes In the future, the German beach volleyball players have acknowledged their worst performance at a world championship in 20 years.
“We know that we are on the right path towards the 2024 Olympics,” said 28-year-old Clemens Wickler, who was eliminated in the round of 16 with his partner Nils Ehlers, as was the women’s duo Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann.
The Hamburg Ehlers/Wickler, the only men’s team from the German Volleyball Association (DVV) to take part in the title fights, failed in two sets 18:21 and 16:21 in Tlaxcala, Mexico, against the Poles Bartosz Losiak/Michal Bryl. “The disappointment is huge. We’ve played a great tournament up to this point,” said the 29-year-old Ehlers, who was particularly annoyed about the error rate in the assumption being too high.
Müller/Tillmann – like Ehlers/Wickler from Hamburg – lost to the Brazilians Taina Silva Bigi/Victoria Lopes Pereira Tosta 1:2 (19:21, 24:22, 13:15). In the group phase, the German champions and third place at the 2022 World Cup defeated the South Americans in Rome. “We fought until the end. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough,” said 32-year-old Tillmann. Laura Ludwig/Louisa Lippmann (Hamburg) and Sandra Ittlinger/Karla Borger (Stuttgart) were already eliminated in the first knockout round.
The last time that no German duo reached the quarter-finals of a World Cup was in Rio de Janeiro in 2003. In the nine World Championships since then, DVV teams have won one gold, one silver and one bronze for women and one gold, one silver and three bronze for men.