#1DayMore4Volleyball winners recount EuroBeachVolley experience

Earlier this year, the third edition of #1DayMore4Volleyball was run in conjunction with the leap day, February 29, and the opportunity to attend the CEV EuroBeachVolley 2024 final weekend was among the highly coveted prizes at stake. A video produced by the Vellaznimi Volleyball club from the city of Gjakova, Kosovo, was chosen to top the charts in the ‘diversity’ category. The clip released on Instagram (click here) featured youngsters setting up a volleyball court in the city centre where they were joined by students from a nearby school and other passers-by. 

Blendi Haxhikadrija and his friend Merkur did eventually travel to the Netherlands and joined in the party with thousands of other fans in Scheveningen, the iconic beach of The Hague, as they witnessed the crowning of the 2024 European Beach Volleyball champions. “It was an incredibly nice and unprecedented opportunity for me and Merkur to attend such a perfectly organised event by the CEV and the Dutch Volleyball Federation. Moreover, The Hague was a beautiful city to explore and the opportunity to visit the European Beach Volleyball Championship made our stay and experience truly magical,” Blendi says. 

“This was our first time at such a major Beach Volleyball event as we have mainly dealt with indoor Volleyball. For this reason, everything was new and beautiful to us at the same time. This weekend was perhaps one of the most enjoyable ones that we have spent in our lives. Not for one moment did we fail to attempt to find ways or try to put in more efforts to focus on the delivery of such kind of tournaments in Kosovo though it is not an easy thing to do as much as it is very hard to have such opportunities for Beach Volleyball in our country,” he continues. 

“My desire is to have many people of authority in Kosovo have the opportunity to watch these tournaments live, so they can see for themselves families sitting together and watching great matches, and fans supporting all the athletes irrespective of their nationality and gain those invaluable moments of a sport which is so dear to me,” he concludes. “After returning home, I would like to express my gratitude to CEV for providing this opportunity to Merkur and me and I can only wish that one day such events will be taking place in Kosovo as well!”