Quartet going for glory in Qinzhou

• Facebook
• Twitter

Lena Plesiutschnig and Katharina Schützenhöfer give the thumbs up when in action in 2016

Mention Austria and beach volleyball in the same sentence to us and our minds immediately hark back to the incredible 10 days in the sun on the Danube Island for the World Championships in Vienna over the summer.

Clemens Doppler and Alex Horst’s super silver medal was one the highlights of the season and now, off the back of that success, four teams from Austria will be hoping to get their 2018 seasons off to a flyer in the three-star event in Qinzhou this week.

The biggest news to come out of the Austrian party heading to the Far East is the reunion of Lena Plesiutschnig and Katharina Schützenhöfer.

In the World Championships on home sand, Lena partnered Connie Rimser, while Katharina played together with the experienced Steffi Schwaiger.

But Plesiutschnig and Schützenhöfer are of course no strangers to each other having been partners for six years before the pair went their separate ways in 2016.

Meanwhile, Rob Seidl and Tobi Winter and Thomas Kunert and Christoph Dressler both had the backing of the thousands of fans inside the Red Bull Beach Arena during their run in the World Championships on home sand. The two teams will face plenty of tough competition in the men’s section of the competition.

Seidl/Winter and Kunert/Dressler are joined in China by fellow Austrian partnership Florian Schnetzer and Daniel Müllner, the young pair who finished fifth in the one-star event in Montpellier, France, in September.

All the Austrian teams involved will be hoping to earn the top prize of USD 10,000 and the important 600 ranking points available for winning the gold medal.

We’ll keep you up-to-date with all the teams’ progress during the week in Qinzhou, so don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all the latest beach volleyball news.