German fans will see a new home team formation at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Hamburg 2019 presented by comdirect and ALDI Nord as Alexander Walkenhorst, who was set to compete at the event with Sven Winter, will be sidelined due to injury and veteran Jonathan Erdmann will fill his spot at the Rothenbaum Stadium in a week-time.
Walkenhorst was diagnosed with a tendon injury on his wrist after finishing third with Winter in an event of the German Tour in Nürnberg at the beginning of the month. The 30-year-old blocker sat out of the following tournaments, but couldn’t recover on time to play in Hamburg.
“It’s incredibly annoying,” Walkenhorst said. “I’ll miss the best beach volleyball experience of my career. Some people have asked why didn’t I just try, but to me, competing at the World Championships not having 100 percent of your physical conditions wouldn’t be fair, not only to my partner, but also to the thousands of fans who are looking forward to highly-competitive top-level matches.”
In comes Erdmann, a 31-year-old veteran, who will bring a fair amount of experience to the team. He’s an Olympian, having finished ninth at the London 2012 Games with longtime partner Kay Matysik, and has competed in four other editions of the World Championships, winning a bronze medal in Stare Jablonki 2013.
The new German team is placed on Pool A, alongside Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sørum, Brazilians Pedro Solberg and Vitor Felipe and Cubans Sergio Gonzalez and Luis Reyes. Their debut is set to happen against the Brazilians on June 28, in the last of the Red Bull Beach Arena that day.
