18/08/2017 13:27
Latvian party continues in Jurmala!
2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Jurmala, Latvia, August 18, 2017. It happens quite rarely that the no. 1 and no. 4 seeds of a European Championship have to lock horns in Round 2 of the elimination stage. However, this is what the Latvian fans were able to witness on Friday at lunchtime as local heroes Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins played Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor for a spot in the quarterfinals of the 2017 #EuroBeachVolley Final. A large, raucous crowd pushed the ‘Lion King’ and ‘Terminator’ Smedins towards a 2-1 victory (21-19, 19-21, 15-10), which keeps them in contention for a spot on the podium and their second continental crown. Shortly afterwards, Martins Plavins and Haralds Regza prolonged the Latvian party with their sensational victory over pre-favourite Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Nikita Liamin of Russia to secure their spot in the quarterfinals.
Losiak and Kantor had travelled to Latvia’s most popular seaside resort as the no. 1 seeds of the tournament, but they underperformed in the pool phase. As a result, they had to take the longer way and following Thursday’s Drawing of Lots, they were due to play the home stars in Round 2 after claiming a victory over Austria’s Thomas Kunert/Christoph Dressler earlier on Friday morning.
Samoilovs and Smedins soon realised this was going to be a close race – as they took the first set 21-19 before their opponents responded by levelling the match. The tiebreak lived up to everyone’s expectations and made people feel like this matchup could have been worth a semi-final or a spot on the podium. After a close start to the all-deciding set (3-3), Samoilovs and Smedins scored three points in a row to prompt a Polish time-out. Losiak and Kantor somehow regrouped to make it 6-all but at this stage, the Latvians produced a 5-1 run, which practically determined the outcome of the match.
They produced an overall superb performance and eventually sealed their 2-1 victory with a monster block by Samoilovs. The Latvian party continued shortly afterwards as Martins Plavins and Haralds Regza caused a real sensation with their come-from-behind victory (2-1; 19-21, 21-16, 15-10) over Russia’s Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Nikita Liamin, the World Champs bronze medal winners who were performing under the eyes of the President of the Russian Olympic Committee and IOC member, Alexander Zhukov.
“When we saw the draw yesterday and we thought of all eight possible opponents, this was the most difficult option,” Samoilovs commented about this ‘early final’. “Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak have been playing very well the whole season and they were seeded first in this tournament, but we remained focused throughout the match. We were ready for the fact that we had to win it, we are playing at home and everybody is expecting from us a victory in every game we contest,” he continued.
“They did not make it easy for us and you can tell they were fighting for every ball,” the ‘Lion King’ further elaborated. “They can dig some incredible balls and they were going over the advertising boards to get them. If you want to beat them, you need to beat their effort. You cannot wait for them to give up easily. We remained concentrated and were prepared to dig all balls we could and keep them in play. In terms of expectations, we do not feel any pressure from the fans, the most important thing now is our concentration.”
Next to Samoilovs/Smedins, other pool winners who continued their triumphal march in Jurmala are Italy’s Alex Ranghieri/Adrian Carambula and Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo, Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek/Michal Bryl, Norway’s Anders Berntsen Mol/Christian Sandlie Sørum and Dutchmen Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, who benefited from the withdrawal of Germany’s Alexander Walkenhorst/Sebastian Fuchs. The only breakthrough win came courtesy of Belgium’s Dries Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle, who beat reigning U22 European champions Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin of Russia 21-18, 21-18 to secure a historic top five finish for their country.
Click here for further information
|