EuroBeachVolley provides warm send-off to Croatian referee Drago Peslac

After 20 years spent refereeing Beach Volleyball matches on the international stage, Croatia’s Drago Peslac did receive a very emotional and fitting tribute on Friday night in Apeldoorn after finishing his career at this year’s EuroBeachVolley. Peslac had started his journey two decades ago by attending an International Beach Volleyball Referee Candidate Course held in Cagliari, Italy. However, he will stick with the sport he loves so much and slowly transition to the role of CEV Supervisor after attending a seminar organised by the CEV earlier this year in Vilnius, Lithuania. 

Peslac has travelled the world extensively to officiate at major Beach Volleyball competitions, including the 2007 edition of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships held in Gstaad, Switzerland, and the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, where Beach Volleyball made its historic debut on the programme. Moreover, he worked as an FIVB Instructor and did oversee Beach Volleyball competitions organised by the African Volleyball Confederation (CAVB) from 2011 to 2014, thereby visiting and working in countries such as Namibia where Beach Volleyball was very much at an early stage of its development process. 

Before his stint at this year’s EuroBeachVolley where he was appointed for matches contested in Apeldoorn and Arnhem, Peslac previously attended the continental championship another three times – namely in 2008 in Hamburg (Germany), 2009 in Sochi (Russia), and 2014 in Cagliari (Italy). 

His friends and colleagues organised a surprise, warm send-off after the quarterfinal match between Norway’s Hendrik Mol/Mathias Berntsen and Lithuania’s Patrikas Stankevicius/Audrius Knasas – and even though he will remain involved in Beach Volleyball albeit in a different capacity, he did understandably look quite emotional while bidding farewell to the refereeing community!