07/07/2018 20:12
Russian women and Chinese men impress at 1-Star Anapa Satellite
2018 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Anapa
Anapa, Russia, July 7, 2018. On Saturday, teams from Russia and China confirmed their dominant role at the 1-Star event in Anapa as four home sides progressed to the women’s semi-finals while three tandems from China made it among the top four of the men’s tournament.
Actually, as many as seven Russian teams contested the women’s quarterfinals where Ekaterina Birlova and Evgenia Ukolova beat Cuba’s Leila Martinez/Mailen Deliz 21-19, 21-15 to make sure Russia would complete a clean sweep of the medals.
Daria Mastikova and Anastasia Petrunina claimed the first semi-final as they beat Ksenia Dabizha and Yulia Abalakina 21-19, 16-21, 15-12 after they previously had edged Ekaterina Syrtseva and Anastasia Barsuk in the quarterfinals (21-19, 21-19). “Frankly speaking, we did not expect to be that successful,” Mastikova said. “There are many other strong teams competing here but we are obviously happy, especially since this is only our first tournament together.”
Reigning U22 European champions Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina (pictured above) beat the more experienced Birlova/Ukolova in the other semi-final (18-21, 21-18, 15-11). “It was a tough match but we got the job done. We had to deal with our own mistakes. Our only goal is to win this tournament,” Makroguzova said.
The men’s quarterfinals featured a Russian derby between Maksim Hudyakov/Ruslan Bykanov and Ivan Golovin/Taras Myskiv. Golovin and Myskiv, who won gold at this year’s European Snow Volleyball Championship with Ruslan Daianov, won the match 21-14, 21-13. “We know each other very well and this year I have played against Hudyakov and Bykanov many times, not only on sand, but on snow as well,” Myskiv said. “We are happy with today’s victory. They played very well but we were able to show our best level when it mattered the most. We still need to work hard to achieve higher goals. We have a plan and we will stick to it to improve our game.”
Li Zhuoxin of China in action during the quarterfinals of the 1-Star Satellite in Anapa
Golovin and Myskiv are the only non-Chinese team to have made it to the men’s semis. Sergey Gorbenko and Alexander Likholetov of Russia, who have been playing together for five days only, lost to Li Zhuoxin and Zhou Chaowei 16-21, 14-21. Peng Gao and Yang Li beat Marcel Myslivecek and Martin Pihera of Czech Republic 21-13, 17-21, 15-8 to set up an all-Chinese semi against Ha Likejiang and Wu Jiaxin who beat Sweden’s Jakob Molin and Linus Tholse 21-18, 21-19.
“We really wanted to progress to the semis. We prepared very well for the match with the Russians and we showed our best side. We very much hope that China will complete a clean sweep of the medals here in Anapa,” Zhou Chaowei commented after the victory over Likholetov and Gorbenko.
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