Anouk Dupin of France is having an outstanding season, reaching the podium in every Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event she`s participated in this year. Her gold medal win at the Jurmala Futures in Latvia on Sunday marks her fourth medal in a row, and her second consecutive podium finish partnering with Marine Kinna. The women`s competition in Jurmala saw two Estonian pairs, Eva Liisa Kuivonen & Liisa-Lotta Jurgenson and Liisa Remmelg & Heleene Hollas, complete the podium. The men`s tournament featured an all-Baltic top three, with Latvians Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots winning gold, compatriots Aleksandrs Samoilovs & Gustavs Auzins taking silver, and Lithuanians Audrius Knasas & Povilas Piesina earning bronze, delighting the home crowd.
The 22-year-old Dupin began her impressive run this season with a gold at the Valencia Futures alongside Saofe Duval. This was followed by a silver in Madrid with Alex Merle and a bronze in Battipaglia with Marine Kinna. Reuniting with Kinna in Jurmala last week, Dupin climbed back to the top spot, securing her fifth overall Beach Pro Tour medal (including a bronze from the 2023 Lille Futures with Ophelie Lusson). For Kinna, her two medals with Dupin represent her first two podiums on the Beach Pro Tour. The fourth-seeded French duo had a flawless path to the Jurmala final, winning five consecutive matches in straight sets. Their semifinal match against the second-seeded Remmelg & Hollas ended 2-0 (21-11, 21-17). In the gold medal match against Kuivonen & Jurgenson, Dupin & Kinna dropped their first set of the tournament but ultimately triumphed 2-1 (21-18, 16-21, 15-9).
Seventh-seeded Estonians Kuivonen & Jurgenson, also 22, reached the final without a loss in their five matches. Their semifinal victory was a hard-fought 2-1 (21-15, 20-22, 15-12) win against 14th-seeded Latvians Varvara Brailko & Anete Namike, securing their second Beach Pro Tour medal after a bronze at last year’s Spiez Futures.
In the third-place playoff, Remmelg & Hollas defeated Brailko & Namike 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) to claim their seventh career Beach Pro Tour medal. This bronze adds to their collection which includes five silvers and one gold.
In the men`s draw, the top-seeded Latvian pair of Martins Plavins, a 40-year-old three-time Olympian and London 2012 bronze medalist, and his 20-year-old partner Kristians Fokerots, a 2022 U19 world champion, dominated the tournament without dropping a single set across six matches. In the semifinals, Plavins & Fokerots overcame sixth-seeded Lithuanians Arnas Rumsevicius & Karolis Palubinskas 2-0 (21-16, 21-14). The final was a tight contest against their 14th-seeded compatriots Aleksandrs Samoilovs & Gustavs Auzins, which they won 2-0 (25-23, 21-19). This gold medal is the fourth Beach Pro Tour medal for the reigning European champions as a team. It is their second gold, following their victory at the 2023 Warsaw Futures, and their first podium finish in 2025. Their medal haul also includes a bronze from the 2024 Rio de Janeiro Elite16.
Gustavs Auzins, Fokerots` 20-year-old partner from age-group competitions and also a 2022 U19 world champion, teamed up with 40-year-old three-time Olympian Aleksandrs Samoilovs to make a successful Beach Pro Tour debut, securing silver. They reached the Jurmala final with a five-match winning streak, including a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) semifinal win against fifth-seeded Audrius Knasas & Povilas Piesina.
The third-place match was an all-Lithuanian affair, with Knasas & Piesina defeating Rumsevicius & Palubinskas convincingly 2-0 (21-11, 21-9) to achieve their first Beach Pro Tour podium together.
The Jurmala Futures tournament featured 31 women`s and 32 men`s teams representing 22 different national federations. Four more Futures events are scheduled for this week, from June 19 to 22, in Qidong, China; Ios, Greece; Messina, Italy; and a men’s tournament in Geneva, Switzerland.
Jasper Thornfield