Bellos keen for more after taste of big time in Vienna

Reaching the quarter-finals in Vienna – beating the 2013 World Champions along the way – was a milestone moment in the careers of the English pair, who had underlined their promise almost exactly a year previously when clinching a bronze medal at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. 

That accomplishment smashed the previous best by a British pair at a European Championships event – the 17th place achieved by Jake Sheaf and Chris Gregory in Jurmala, Latvia, in 2017 when the competition was contested under a different format. 

But the London-based twins, 23, are not about to dwell on it for too long. Yes, there was a brief pause for reflection and celebration over the weekend, but now it is back to the grind that has enabled them to get this far. 

To reach their ultimate goal of consistently competing at the world’s best tournaments – and inspire the next generation – they know there is plenty of hard work still to do. 

“This result is a huge step up for our team and for English beach volleyball,” said Javier. “We hope that it will drive the growth of the sport in the UK and inspire the next generation of beach volleyball players that will come after us. 

We’re still feeling goosebumps from the crowd in Vienna. We felt so supported by our family and friends and all of the Austrian fans that cheered for us and created the most incredible atmosphere. It gave us a lot of energy and belief that allowed us to perform at our best.” 

“Seeing all the support around us and more players than ever playing beach volleyball makes us even more determined to continue on this journey and keep pushing for even higher goals.” 

In Vienna, the Bellos began with defeat by the narrowest of margins – 24-22, 21-18 to Spanish pair Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira – but they very quickly bounced back with a 21-16, 21-14 win over Austrians Laurenz Leitner and Paul Pascariuc in their other Pool H match. 

That set up an epic encounter in the main Red Bull Beach Arena against another Austrian pairing in the shape of Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz – and the partisan home crowd that came with them – where they eventually prevailed 24-22, 22-24, 15-12. 

The brothers backed that up with another high-level performance later in the day to beat world number four pairing Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands in straight sets (21-18, 21-16) to reach the last eight. 

And while they fell at that particular hurdle, going down 21-9, 22-20 to Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik, who eventually took a bronze medal, they left with an increasingly strong belief that they have the capabilities to compete on the world stage. 

Joaquin said: “This was our first European Championship, so we really had no expectation of how far we could make it. Match after match, we kept fighting together and gained a lot of confidence as the tournament progressed. 

“That was especially true in the game against the Netherlands, where we had come out from a really close win in the longest match of the tournament that same morning, but we still managed to put together one of our best performances… our coach and support team was so important in doing that. 

“I think we surprised a lot of people with our results and also ourselves a little bit. We are very limited in our resources so it took a lot of hard work from our family and support team to reach our best level yet. 

“We want to thank everyone helping us to make history and all of the people rooting for us back home.” 

Boosted by 600 world ranking points, the Bellos have targeted their next ‘key’ tournament as the Elite 16 competition being staged at Paris’ Roland Garros at the back end of September. 

And while there are others in a stronger position to push their claims for Olympic qualification, and, with it, secure a return to the French capital next June, Javier acknowledges it is not beyond the realms of possibility that they could make it happen with a good run of results. 

He said: “Right now, the Olympic race is incredibly competitive and catches us a little early in our career. 
 
“Our full focus is on our development and building everything we need to qualify in 2028, but we have perhaps opened up an outside chance, and we still have the Continental Qualification pathway to look forward to.” 

Watch this space. Whatever the Bellos achieve in the rest of this year, their exploits in Austria have already put British Beach Volleyball firmly on the map. 

Pics: CEV

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