Sweden’s Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson won gold at Brasilia Elite, Brasilia, Brazil; seventh Beach Pro Tour gold
Empowered Holting Nilsson & Andersson, Plavins & Fokerots make Elite podium again – FIVB
Sweden’s Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson and Latvia’s Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots, both FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries, made it to their second consecutive Elite podium on the Beach Pro Tour. After they claimed silver and bronze, respectively, at the Saquarema Elite last month, Holting Nilsson & Andersson upgraded to gold, while Plavins & Fokerots picked up another bronze at last week’s Brasilia Elite. The men’s silver in the Brazilian capital went to Poland’s Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak, while Brazil’s Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti, Italy’s Valentina Gottardi & Reka Orsi Toth and USA’s Savannah Cory (Savvy) & Devon Newberry lined up on the women’s podium.
The Swedish Volleyball Association’s beach volleyball department has been funded with USD 84,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their men’s national teams, trained by ground-breaking coach Rasmus Jonsson, in addition to a USD 6,000 in a national team coach development knowledge transfer program. The Volleyball Federation of Latvia has been granted a total of USD 210,000 in coach support for their national teams in beach volleyball from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment, in addition to USD 5,500 in beach volleyball equipment. Their duos are working under the guidance of coach Genadijs Samoilovs.
21-year-old Jacob Holting Nilsson and 19-year-old Elmer Andersson(pictured in the main photo)of Sweden won all seven of their matches in Brasilia dropping only two sets on the way to the Elite trophy. In their semifinal, they came back from a set down against France’s Teo Rotar & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat to put together a 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 15-10) victory. In the gold medal showdown, the second-seeded Swedes mastered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) shutout of ninth-seeded Poles Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak. Thus, the young Swedes, 2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship silver medalists and current FIVB World Ranking leaders, earned their seventh gold and 11th medal on the Beach Pro Tour. The Brasilia silver was the 10th medal in Bryl & Losiak’s Beach Pro Tour collection.
40-year-old three-time Olympian Martins Plavins and 21-year-old Kristians Fokerots lost only a set on the way to the Brasilia semifinals. After losing the battle for a spot in the final to Bryl & Losiak by 2-0 (21-16, 21-10), the fourth-seeded Latvians bounced back with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) sweep of the third-place game against 10th-seeded Rotar & Gauthier-Rat and collected their seventh Beach Pro Tour medal together.
Women’s winners Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti, also current World Ranking leaders, also cruised through the tournament in the Brazilian capital undefeated in seven matches, also with just two sets lost along the way. The top-seeded Brazilians crowned their quest for the first place with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) semifinal win over USA’s Savvy Cory & Devon Newberry and a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) victory over third-seeded Italians Valentina Gottardi & Reka Orsi Toth in the final. Carol & Rebecca celebrated their fourth gold and fifth medal on the Beach Pro Tour since teaming up for the start of the 2025 season.
The second place was the third podium finish on the Tour for Gottardi & Orsi Toth as a pair. They secured the medal with a six-win run, crowned with a convincing 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) upset of reigning world champions Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia in the semifinals.
19th-seeded Savvy & Newberry also upset second-seeded Tina & Anastasija with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) sweep of the bronze medal match to bring home their first Beach Pro Tour hardware as a duo and first medal for either of them at the Elite level.
32 men’s teams and 32 women’s teams from 20 different countries took part in the Brasilia Elite.
The next Elite event will take place in Ostrava, Czechia from May 27 to 31.
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