After the surprising championship triumph on the Baltic Sea, Alexander Walkenhorst appealed to the German Volleyball Association to approve a joint solution for the reconstruction of a national beach series for the coming year.
“The biggest question is: What happens in German beach volleyball?
I hope that we can answer that with.
If not, we'll answer them for ourselves.
But that doesn't help anyone, we saw that again this year, ”said the 33-year-old Walkenhorst immediately after winning the final on Sunday with his partner Sven Winter.
After the complete cancellation of the German Beach Tour in 2020 and 2021, Walkenhorst initiated a replacement series with the streaming channel Twitch, private organizers and national volleyball associations. This made it possible to qualify for the championships. There were always disputes and mutual accusations with the DVV. “We let ourselves be neutered without end. We tried to somehow save it. We pulled through tour sponsors for free so that the money could be spent in the end. We have already bent over. If the other side bends too, we can do it, ”said Master Walkenhorst, who sees his future focus in his business.
“We have things that we do best. The association has qualities that it does best. If you pack that together, then you can achieve something next year, ”said the new national title holder. “There will be no major events in the summer of 2022, the soccer World Cup in Qatar has gone into winter. It can be a summer for beach volleyball. We should try that. "
Association President René Hecht had previously stated: “The DVV has a duty. We have to offer the players a competitive offer. We definitely want to have a Beach series. ”So far, however, no contracts have been signed. Only Timmendorfer Strand as the host of the final championships is fixed until 2023. The difficult sponsorship situation for the entire tour is mainly due to the fact that "we cannot show a clear product," explained the former indoor national player. The association is under time pressure.