The FIVB Beach World Tour is set to return to Poland for the 16th-straight season this week with a four-star event in the country’s capital, Warsaw ©FIVB

The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Beach World Tour is set to return to Poland for the 16th-straight season this week with a four-star event in the country’s capital, Warsaw.

It is the penultimate event on the Tour prior to the 2019 FIVB Beach World Championships, scheduled to be held in German city Hamburg from June 28 to July 7.

Headlining the field will be defending champions Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Łosiak of Poland and Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson of Canada.

The members of the 2018 silver medal-winning teams are playing with new partners this season, but last year’s bronze medallists remain intact as Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Jānis Šmēdiņš of Latvia and Ágatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa of Brazil seek to better their finishes.

Poland's Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Łosiak and Canada's Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson triumphed at last year's edition of the event in Warsaw ©FIVB
Poland's Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Łosiak and Canada's Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson triumphed at last year's edition of the event in Warsaw ©FIVB

Competition at the Monta Beach Volley Club is due to run until Sunday (June 16).

Following tomorrow’s qualifying, the $300,000 (£236,000/€265,000) Warsaw Open features pool play on Thursday (June 13) before the opening elimination rounds on Friday (June 14).

The medal matches are set for Saturday (June 15) for women and Sunday for men with the winning duos sharing the $20,000 (£16,000/€18,000) first-place prizes.

The last event on the FIVB Beach World Tour to take place before the World Championships will be the one-star competition on the Greek island of Ios from Thursday to Sunday.