EMPOWERMENT PAIRS SHINE AT QUEEN & KING OF THE COURT® IN LONDON

The Queen & King of the Court® Crown Series Event presented by London 2025 presented by Miramar® came to a completion on Saturday in the United Kingdom, with several teams benefitting from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment making their way to the podiums. Katja Stam & Emi van Driel of the Netherlands (pictured in the main photo; source: kingofthecourt.com) grabbed the Queen’s crown, while Taliqua Clancy & Stefanie Fejes of Australia finished runners-up with silver. The mixed Paraguayan-Dutch pairing of Giuliana Poletti Corrales & Lisa Luini claimed bronze. The men’s silver and bronze went to France’s Calvin Aye & Teo Rotar and England’s Issa Batrane & Frederick Bialokoz, respectively. Italy’s Manuel Alfieri & Alex Ranghieri snatched the King’s crown at the first ever Queen & King of the Court event held indoors, at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

The Netherlands Volleyball Federation (Nevobo) has so far been allocated a total of USD 217,600 in national beach volleyball teams coach support from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment. Their women’s pairs work under the guidance of Cypriot coach Antreas Savvidis and his staff. Volleyball Australia’s beach volleyball department has been granted a total of USD 378,000 worth of FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their beach volleyball teams. Coach Brad Tutton has been training the Australian women’s pairs

Katja Stam & Emi van Driel of the Netherlands won Group B and qualified directly to Saturday’s Queen & King of the Court® Crown Series beach volleyball final in London. They dominated the showdown leading the way from the beginning through the end. The Dutch pair finished the final round 3 with 15 points, leaving Australia’s Taliqua Clancy & Stefanie Fejes in second place with six points and the international tandem of Giuliana Poletti Corrales & Lisa Luini in third with three. This way, Katja Stam claimed her fourth Queen & King of the Court® title, joining an elite group that includes Paris 2024 Olympic medalists David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden and Clemens Wickler of Germany.

The two American beach volleyball teams that qualified for the final – Corinne Quiggle & Chloe Loreen and Abby Van Winkle & Tessa Van Winkle – finished in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Queen of the Court London 2025: all results

France’s beach volleyball department has been allocated coach support funding from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment totaling USD 1,077,000 so far. Their men’s teams are trained by Brazilian coach Calvis Lopes. The Federation Francaise de Volleyball has also received USD 5,500 in beach volleyball equipment. Volleyball England’s beach volleyball department has so far been funded with USD 294,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national duos, in addition to another USD 6,000 for a national team coach development knowledge transfer program. Luis Bello has been coaching their national beach athletes.

The home crowd in London was able to enjoy beach volleyball from home favorites Issa Batrane & Frederick Bialokoz right up to the end of the competition. The English pair received loud and enthusiastic support throughout the event, but in the final round they had to watch the French duo of Calvin Aye and recent FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship bronze medalist Teo Rotar and Italy’s Manuel Alfieri & Alex Ranghieri battle it out for the crown in a spectacular manner. The Italians topped the crucial round 3 with 15 points. Aye & Rotar finished second with nine, while Batrane & Bialokoz came third with five, thus shaping the same top three in the final standings that lined up on top of the Group A standings at the start of the main draw.

The other two finalists, Estonia’s Mart Tiisaar & Dimitriy Korotkov and Germany’s Robin Sowa & Jonas Reinhardt, lined up fourth and fifth in the final standings.

King of the Court London 2025: all results

The Crown Series beach volleyball tour continues in Helsinki, Finland on December 19 and 20.