20/08/2017 17:32
Lupo/Nicolai spoil Latvian party to net third #EuroBeachVolley title
2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Jurmala, Latvia, August 20, 2017. Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai silenced more than 3,300 Latvian fans on a cloudy Sunday afternoon to seal their third European title after edging home stars Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins 21-16, 23-21 in a remake of the 2014 gold medal match these same teams had contested in Cagliari. Three years ago, Nicolai and Lupo had secured their first continental crown on home soil – and they made it a hat trick of European titles in Jurmala, thus retaining the gold medal they won last year in Biel / Bienne. With this result, they emulated the Swiss Laciga brothers, Reinder Nummerdor/Richard Schuil of the Netherlands and Germany’s Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann, all of them being triple European champions. Reckermann remains the only player to date to have won four European titles – as he did so with two different partners (Brink and Markus Dieckmann) – since the inaugural #EuroBeachVolley held in 1993.
The organisers of the 2017 #EuroBeachVolley in Jurmala were hoping to crown a memorable week with gold for their home stars – but playing their third European Championship final in four years, Samoilovs and Smedins failed to claim back the crown they won in 2015 in Klagenfurt. Quite interestingly, the Latvians have played all of their European finals against Italian opposition – Nicolai/Lupo in 2014 and Ranghieri/Carambula in 2015 – including today’s ‘grand finale’ on home sand.
Nicolai/Lupo set the tone of the match with a superb performance in the first set, which they won quite comfortably (21-16) before coming from behind in a closely contested second set – where the Latvians dictated the tempo almost from start to end and failed to capitalise on a set ball as Samoilovs served long. Lupo and Nicolai failed to cash their first match point before shortly afterwards Lupo finished a truly spectacular rally to make it 23-21 and seal the Italians’ third continental crown.
“I really cannot express my feelings right now. I want to thank everyone who worked with us for this moment, our staff and of course Daniele,” Nicolai said. “It takes a great effort to become triple European champions and we are really proud we did it.”
It was not easy to play before such a partisan crowd. “We have played here before, so we know how passionate Latvian fans can be. Last year we played the Olympic final against Brazil in Rio, so we know this happens [fans booing] when you play a final against a host team.”
Finally, Paolo addressed a few words to their Italian fans: “Thank you everyone! We did it again and we want to go for another one. We work hard and we feel your support, we will definitely try and give you more moments like this.”
Brouwer/Meeuwsen clam first #EuroBeachVolley medal
The eventual winners of the ‘small final’ would have secured their first medal from the #EuroBeachVolley – and Dutchmen Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen were the ones to achieve this feat as they rallied to a 2-1 victory (21-17, 17-21, 15-11) over Dries Koekelkoren and Tom van Walle. Brouwer/Meeuwsen now have a complete set of medals from all ‘major’ Beach Volleyball competitions – since they added European bronze to the sensational gold they won at the 2013 Worlds in Stare Jablonki and the bronze medal they took home from last year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The bronze medal match was a remake of the game these two teams had played in the pool stage – which had ended in a 2-0 victory for the Dutchmen. Brouwer/Meeuwsen could not ask for an opposition they would know any better in their quest for their first #EuroBeachVolley medal and they set the pace in the opening set, which Meeuwsen finished with an ace at 21-17. Koekelkoren and van Walle responded in the second set – where they nevertheless lacked consistency as they claimed an early 8-4 lead before Brouwer/Meeuwsen levelled the count at 11-all. The Belgians regrouped to storm to another four-point lead at 18-14 before finishing it off at 21-17 as Meeuwsen served into the net.
The 2013 world champions claimed an early lead in the tiebreak (5-3) and helped by some mistakes made by the Belgians they eventually secured their first European medal – after finishing twice (in 2015 and 2016) in fourth place. As for Koekelkoren and van Walle, their fourth place equals Belgium’s best ever result at the #EuroBeachVolley – Liesbeth Mouha and Liesbet Van Breedam had finished one spot shy of the medals at the 2009 edition of the European Championship in Sochi, Russia.
“We have been chasing this medal since 2011 and were actually talking about it on our way to the stadium,” Meeuwsen said. “At our first #EuroBeachVolley in 2011 we finished fifth, at the second we were fifth again. After that, we dropped to ninth and we were fourth again in 2015 and 2016 as well. We were joking that whatever we get today, we will win next year. We have been fourth already enough times, so we really wanted this bronze medal now.”
Next year the #EuroBeachVolley will take place in their home country and Meeuwsen already looks forward to that. “The goal will be to win gold on home soil, but it’s so far ahead it’s hard to set any expectations. We look at the fans here, who support so warmly not just their own team, but came to our matches and created a great atmosphere for us too. This is my first time in Latvia and I am pleasantly surprised that everyone, from small kids to adults go crazy and make a big party out of it for all of the teams. In the Netherlands next year you will see exactly the same thing, the Dutch fans are also crazy, so it is going to be fun!”
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