15/07/2017 22:04
French newcomers triumph with women’s gold at CEV Satellite Siófok
2017 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Siófok
Siófok, Hungary, July 15, 2017. France had much to celebrate on Saturday on the shores of Lake Balaton as Alexia Richard and Margaux Carrère triumphed with gold at the CEV women’s Satellite in Siofok after edging Ilke Meertens/Annemieke Driessen of the Netherlands in the ‘grand finale’ of the tournament. At the same time, the young teams from the Netherlands secured their qualification to the final stage of the 2017-2018 CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup.
Richard and Carrère came from behind in the first set of the gold medal match since after trailing 18-20, they scored four points in a row by using their serve to change the course of the game. The French players looked extremely self-confident in the second half of the following set and eventually closed the match 2-0 (22-20, 21-16) to triumph with the gold medal after completing a clean sweep of their matches on Hungarian soil.
“We are extremely happy with this success especially since this is our first season together and this was our first CEV Satellite,” Carrère and Richard commented.
Two pairs of twins contested the bronze medal match with Ukraine’s Inna and Iryna Makhno eventually rallying to a 2-0 victory (21-19, 21-13) over Susanna and Kristina Thurin of Sweden in a remake of the game that these same teams had played in Round 3 of the tournament – which the Ukrainian siblings had won in two sets as well.
At least one Austrian team will play for gold on Sunday in the men’s competition – since Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz will play their compatriots Daniel Müllner and Florian Schnetzer in the semis. Germany’s Lorenz Schümann and Alexander Walkenhorst will play France’s Maxime Thiercy/Romain Di Giantommaso in the other semi-final, with the Germans hoping to add another medal to their collection after finishing third last week at the CEV Satellite in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Schümann is also a bronze medal winner from this year’s Baden Masters together with Julius Thole.
The Dutch teams looked dominant in the CEV Youth Continental Cup and by completing a clean sweep of their matches on Saturday, they made sure they will finish first or second, thus securing their progression to the finals scheduled for next year. Hungary and Serbia will play on Sunday to stay alive in the competition and to challenge Poland for the other spot at stake to make it to the finals. Hungary’s dreams of success, however, may suffer because of the injury occurred to Nikolett Tatrai on Saturday.
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