Dutch men looking to return to the top of the podium at home
EuroBeachVolley
The third most successful nation on the men’s side in the CEV EuroBeachVolley, the Netherlands rely on their homecourt advantage and a talented group of teams to return to the top of the podium in the event for the first time in 14 years.
With six Dutch teams entered among the 32 participants, the men’s tournament of the 32nd edition of the event starts on Wednesday, with matches in the cities of Arnhem, Apeldoorn and The Hague, which will host the finals on Sunday.
The Netherlands have won 11 medals at the EuroBeachVolley so far, with four of them being golds. Marko Klok and Michiel Van der Kuip were the first to triumph, back in 1995, while former indoor volleyball players Reinder Nummerdor, who currently coaches the Dutch national team, and Richard Schuil won three in a row between 2008 and 2010.
Coming from a fifth-place finish at the Paris Olympics, Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot got really close to taking their country back to the top of the podium in 2021, but had to settle for silver. De Groot had another shot at taking gold last year, when he played with Leon Luini, but again he finished second.
In 2024, Boermans and de Groot are in Pool E, where they will face Poland's Piotr Janiak/Jedrzej Brozyniak, Portugal’s Hugo Campos/João Pedrosa and Lithuania’s Patrikas Stankevicius/Audrius Knasas in Apeldoorn.
EuroBeachVolley - Men's Match Schedule
Matthew Immers and Steven van de Velde also represented the Netherlands in Paris, where they ranked ninth. The two will be together at the EuroBeachVolley for just the second time, after taking fifth last year.
They will be based in The Hague for pool play, where they will play against Italy’s Gianluca Dal Corso/Marco Viscovich, Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Jakub Zdybek and Germany’s Paul Henning/Maximilian Just.
The most accomplished Dutch team in international beach volleyball, having won the world title in 2013 and an Olympic bronze medal in 2016, Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen will make their 14th and final attempt to take gold as Meeuwsen announced he’ll retire following the event – their best result to date was taking bronze in 2017.
‘The Bash Brothers’ will play their first matches in The Hague, having Czechia's Jakub Sepka/Jiri Sedlak, Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak and Switerzerland’s Quentin Métral/Yves Haussener as opponents in Pool F.
Last year’s silver medalist Luini has joined another player who has already made it to the podium in 2015. The other two Dutch duos in contention are Mees Sengers/Dirk Boehlé and Ruben Penninga/Thijmen Heemskerk.
The main obstacles standing between the Dutch teams and the top of the podium at the 2024 EuroBeachVolley should be German Olympic silver medalists Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler, last year's EuroBeachVolley semifinalists Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava of Italy, Polish veterans Bartosz Łosiak and Michal Bryl and Spanish legends Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira.