RTalking properly to each other is generally seen as a key element of a working partnership. Sometimes it remains unclear what the quality of communication is. Chantal Laboreur and Cinja Tillmann have clearly found the right balance. The two experienced German beach volleyball players came together as a team for only a short time, but immediately won in a high-quality four-star tournament in Cancun.

It was not until the semi-finals that they were defeated by world champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humna-Paredes from Canada, making them the best German team on the table. National teams Laura Ludwig / Margaretha Kozuch and Carla Borger / Julia Sood were eliminated in the round of 16. Kim Behrens and Sandra Itlinger also failed in the first knockout round.

Chantal Labourur named “a lot of contacts and a lot of communication in some training units” as the secret to his unexpected success. What he and his temporary partner have in common is that the two were out recently and were with other partners before the unexpected breakup. They had never played together before. Defense specialist Laboureur won the German Championship title with Sandra Itlinger last year and was also expected to compete in the Olympics. Sandra Itlinger saw it differently, ending the collaboration and reuniting with her former partner Kim Behrens.

In return, she had previously won silver at the European Championship with Cinja Tillmann – and also a sensational lawsuit against the German Volleyball Association (DVV). The association denied the Tillman / Behrens pair’s international competition and repeatedly canceled them in international tournaments. On the other hand, the players had claimed their right to practice their profession independently and to sue the association. DVV’s sports director Niklas Hildebrand defended his approach by the association with nomination sovereignty, but had to be taught otherwise in court, at least in the first instance.

Prior to the World Federation’s three tournaments on the Caribbean Sea, DVV reintroduced the sporty expressive “country quota” against which it had previously so strenuously protested. It determines that the fourth place that can be claimed the most in international tournaments by a nation will be played among all teams that apply and are not directly qualified through the world rankings.