10/08/2014 00:22
Suomis rock the night at Vaduz Satellite
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Vaduz
Vaduz, Liechtenstein, August 9, 2014. Though some rain poured down on Saturday morning in Vaduz, it was nevertheless another memorable day for Beach Volleyball in the capital city of the small alpine Principality where 3,500 fans flocked to the centre court set up right at the very heart of Vaduz downtown. The women’s competition drew to a close on Saturday night with Finland’s Riikka Lehtonen/Taru Lahti celebrating a straight victory (21-12, 21-12) in the final match with Spain’s Amaranta Fernandez Navarro/Ester Ribera Boter.
35-year old Riikka Lehtonen is by far Finland’s most successful female Volleyball player of all times and together with the only 20-year old Taru Lahti is trying to add another chapter to her formidable career with the ultimate goal being participation in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Lehtonen/Lahti looked extremely focused and determined already in their semi-final match where they played Austria’s first-seeded and former U20 European champions Katharina Schützenhöfer and Lena Plesiutschnig. The Austrians made a way too many mistakes whereas the Finns showed an excellent block-defence system and regularly scored points with their cross-court attacks. This paved the way to a speedy 2:0 victory (21-11, 21-17) for Lehtonen/Lahti.
In the second semi-final Germany’s Katharina Schillerwein/Cinja Tillmann – who had started their campaign in Vaduz already on Wednesday with the country quota matches – played Spain’s Amaranta Fernandez Navarro/Ester Ribera Boter; the match was very close but in the end the 13th seeded Spaniards had the upper hand at the tie-break (22-20, 10-21, 19-17).
Schillerwein/Tillmann did not lose focus and got back on track in the bronze medal match where they played another tie-break but this time cashed the final 15-13 to seal their victory over Austria’s Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig. The German players were very happy with their performance and achievement: “It is very difficult to play international tournaments because we are only team no. 8 in Germany, so it is extremely difficult to make it to the qualification round or main draw of major events,” they said. “Even here we had to start from the country quota matches but we ended up being the best German team in this tournament. It just worked great; we have found the right chemistry and delivered a strong performance all the way through to the end. We are absolutely delighted with this result.”
Back to the centre court, Lehtonen and Lahti started from where they had left in the semis; they never really allowed Fernandez Navarro/Ribera Boter to find their way into the game. The Finns served really strong and Lehtonen showed some great actions in defence. Their side-out worked just fine and in the end the Suomis could celebrate a speedy 21-12, 21-12 victory to top the final standing of the tournament. The Spaniards tried to stop their rivals’ march by asking for early time-outs but it simply did not work. Lehtonen was very pleased with her performance: “This tournament is just a first step on the way to the achievement of our ultimate goal, which is to make it to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. We could not start our preparations for this season that early because of my injury but since then we have been working really hard. We have showed here that we can perform at a high level from the start to the end of the tournament.”
The awards ceremony that concluded a fabulous Beach Volleyball night in Vaduz was attended by CEV Vice President Banu Can Schürmann and by the President of the Liechtenstein Volleyball Federation, Philippe Schürmann.
Italian and German outsiders shine in men’s tournament
The men’s competition is also just about to enter its final stages. Italy’s Gianluca Casadei and Francesco Vanni confirmed their status as major sensation of the tournament at Städtle. They edged reigning U23 world champions Maciej Kosiak and Maciej Rudol of Poland by 21-16, 25-23 to make the semis in their first tournament together. 26-year old Vanni is even playing his first CEV event ever. “It’s just crazy, I mean, what we have already achieved here,” he said. “Gianluca just asked me if I wanted to play with him at this tournament. We aren’t regular partners and for this reason we do not have that many entry points. We have been playing without pressure and we will be giving everything we have also in the semi-finals.”
Casadei/Vanni are not the only sensation of the tournament for German twins Bennet and David Poniewaz have also reached the semis after starting their campaign in Wednesday’s country quota matches. On Saturday they edged last year’s finalists Tobias Winter and Lorenz Petutschnig of Austria (21-12, 21-16) to progress to the semis.
Both Kosiak/Rudol and Winter/Petutschnig still have a chance to reach the semis as they open the programme on Sunday morning with their matches versus Greece’s Kotsilianos/Zoupanis and Dziadkou/Kavalenka of Belarus in the losers’ bracket. After the semis, it will be the time for the final showdown in Vaduz with the bronze and gold medal matches scheduled for 5 and 6 pm local time. Sunday’s programme also includes a special activity for children and the final of the so-called Lie Cups, Liechtenstein’s youth national cup.
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