Credit: Ievgenii Karanov, Chronicle.lu
From Thursday 30 July to Sunday 2 August 2026, two Luxembourg teams represented the Grand Duchy at the MEVZA Beach Tour beach volleyball tournament held at Baggerweier in Remerschen.
The men's competition featured a sixteen-team main draw, with the final four places decided through a qualification tournament involving sixteen teams on Thursday. Luxembourg's representatives, current national champions and the country's top-ranked pair Colin Hilbert / Steve Weber, together with national runners-up Lucas Pernossi / Mathis Wolff, were both seeded directly into the main draw and did not need to compete in the qualification round. Lucas Pernossi and Mathis Wolff were eliminated after two group-stage matches, losing 0-2 to Slovenia (Jaka Jevšnik/Benjamin Mugerli) and 1-2 to Hungary (Vince Pongrácz/Tyson Gabriel Goudie).
In Pool D, Colin Hilbert and Steve Weber opened their campaign with a straight-sets victory over Czech qualifiers Karel Tusek / Vojtech Novotny (21-19, 21-19), before losing 0-2 (17-21, 15-21) to another Czech pair, Lukas Olsansky / David Westphal. Despite the defeat, the Luxembourg national champions progressed to the Round of 12. There, Adrien Perchet's players defeated Austria's Tristan Kitzmüller / Peter Holzner 2-0 (21-10, 23-21) to secure their place in the quarter-finals.
Speaking to Chronicle.lu after reaching the quarter-finals, Colin Hilbert acknowledged that the Luxembourg pair would face a tough challenge but remained confident of their chances. "Our goal will be 100% to try to go to the semi-finals," he said. "Everything is possible, so we just need to play. It's nice to play in front of the home crowd because it always gives us more energy. I think it will be a very nice match for everybody – for us and for the spectators as well."
In the quarter-finals, Adrien Perchet's players took on Czech pair Krystof Oliva and Jan Kuthan. Colin Hilbert and Steve Weber made the stronger start, edging a closely contested opening set 21-19. The Czech duo responded by taking the second set 21-15 to force a deciding tie-break. In the decisive third set, Krystof Oliva and Jan Kuthan found the extra energy for the final push, pulling away to win 15-9 and seal a 2-1 victory, ending the Luxembourg pair's tournament.
The tournament was eventually won by Czech pair Lukas Olsansky and David Westphal, who came from behind to defeat Slovakia's Lubos Nemec and Dominik Jancok 2-1 in the final.
"It's our best season that we ever played, by far," Colin Hilbert told Chronicle.lu ahead of the quarter-final. "We achieved already everything what we wanted to achieve. To be honest, we are not professional players. We are working 40 hours a week, so we really want to enjoy the rest of the season and continue the way we have been playing."
The Luxembourg international credited much of the pair's progress to the appointment of French coach Adrien Perchet by the Luxembourg Volleyball Federation (FLVB), as well as a significant increase in training. "We never had a real coach before," he said. "Our coach did a lot of work and showed us how we can progress. Last season we practised three times a week, which is normal in Luxembourg, but now we practise six times a week after our normal jobs. We are giving way more than in previous seasons, and it pays off."
Following the tournament in Remerschen, Colin Hilbert and Steve Weber will now turn their attention to the Beach Pro Tour event in Modena, Italy, at the end of August, which will be their final Beach Pro Tour tournament of the 2026 season.
