One of the most traditional and anticipated tournaments of the international beach volleyball season, the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite16 is coming up next week, with the best teams in the planet set to get up to compete at the Swiss Alps from July 5-9.

The 22^nd international men’s event held in Gstaad will have the presence of the duos that won the last four editions of the tournament, with Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum, the Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans/Yorick de Groot and Chile’s Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt all set to appear in this year’s event.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite16 live on VBTV.

Reigning Olympic and world champions Mol and Sørum will try to return to the top of the podium in the Swiss Alps after four years. The top-seeded team in the main draw, the Beach Volley Vikings took home the elusive Gstaad cowbells in FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour events in 2018 and 2019, becoming just the second team to take gold in Gstaad in back-to-back seasons, but had to settle for fifth in 2021 and ninth in 2022.

Also guaranteed in the main draw as the 11^th-seeded duo, Boermans and de Groot had the biggest moment of their careers so far in the Swiss Alps, when they made a surprising run that ended at the top of the podium in a World Tour event in 2021.

The Grimalt cousins Marco and Esteban were the winners of the inaugural Beach Pro Tour event in Gstaad, last year’s Elite16 tournament. The South American Olympians will have a long journey to defend their last year’s title as they will begin the tournament in the qualifier, as the top-seeded team.

Anche gli olimpionici brasiliani Evandro Gonçalves e Pedro Solberg, che hanno vinto un evento FIVB World Tour a Gstaad nel 2016, saranno in lizza questa volta, ma con partner diversi. Entrambi inizieranno la loro campagna nelle qualificazioni, con Evandro e il compagno Arthur Lanci al terzo posto e Pedro e il compagno di squadra Gustavo 'Guto' Carvalhaes come settima testa di serie.

Anche le squadre che hanno conquistato l'argento negli ultimi due anni a Gstaad torneranno a cercare di migliorare i loro risultati precedenti. I secondi classificati dell'anno scorso, Ondrej Perusic e David Schweiner della Repubblica Ceca, sono terzi nel tabellone principale, una posizione aperta sotto la medaglia d'argento del 2021, Cherif Younousse e Ahmed Tijan del Qatar.

2023 Gstaad Elite16 – Men’s Entry List

Completano l'elenco delle 12 squadre che inizieranno l'evento nel main draw i francesi Youssef Krou/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, gli italiani Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri, i tedeschi Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler, Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak, Andre Loyola/George Wanderley, Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, Andy Benesh/Miles Partain, USA e Marco Krattiger/Florian Breer, Svizzera.

Ben 28 squadre maschili provenienti da 18 paesi diversi saranno in azione nel Gstaad Elite16. L'evento mette in palio 150.000 dollari di montepremi (per ogni sesso) e punti preziosi per la qualificazione alle Olimpiadi di Parigi 2024.

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