Brno, Czech Republic, August 17, 2018. Top seeded teams from Czech Republic completed the first stage of the #EuroBeachVolleyU18 tournament with three wins out of three, just as the pretenders to the medals from Russia, Netherlands, Germany and the Swedish boys' team. Line-up of the teams that finished at the top of the charts in the group stage is completed by Slovenia, Estonia and Norway in the men's competition and Greece, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine for women.
During the tournament, many well-known faces from Czech Volleyball came to visit the best of #EuroBeachVolleyU18, one of them was Martina Maixnerová, the European U18 champion from 2016, which was held in Brno as well. Her brother Tomáš Maixner claimed second place in Pool E with Vít Beneš, son of the London 2012 Olympian, Petr. "I hope my brother will advance as far as possible," stated Maixnerová in a short interview. "I think teams here have similar skills as the teams that competed at #EuroBeachVolleyU18 in 2016." She also added that she likes the playing style of Wies Bekhuis and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands and she is certain the team can aim for the medals.
Tomáš Maixner will try to repeat his sister's success on home sand at the #EuroBeachVolleyU18
Top seeded Julie Honzovičová and Lucie Šulcová of the Czech Republic claimed first place in Pool A after three comfortable 2-0 wins. "It is a great feeling to be first in the pool stage and to secure at least a TOP 10 result," Honzovičová said. "But we still want to move on, aiming for medal!" Šulcová added. The number-one seeded Jan Vodička and Tadeáš Trousil agreed with the Czech girls and added that both Czech teams have the advantage to see their potential opponents for the second round live in action.
Swedish pair David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, who are the winners of the 2018 CEV Youth Continental Cup, found their way to the second round in style. Yet they were not completely satisfied: "We play well here, but can still play better, because we are making a lot of mistakes," Hellvig reported. "But we are hoping to claim a top 3 result at this nice place," Ahman added.
The tournament has been going well for Bruno Pavlicko and Pavel Ehrenwald from Slovakia and Nicol Duleva and Malina Gadzheva from Bugaria, as both teams first found their way to qualify into main draw, and have now advanced to the play-offs. Finally, home fans can be happy after Friday, since all of the six Czech teams were successful in the group stage and are still in the run for a podium finish while playing on home turf.
The iconic venue in Brno
Competition will resume on Saturday morning with Round 1 of the elimination stage for both genders. The eventual #EuroBeachVolleyU18 champions will be crowned on Sunday afternoon.
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