05/09/2014 19:13
Beach Volleyball rising stars shine as U20 European Champs move on to elimination phase
2014 CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship - Men & Women
Cesenatico, Italy, September 5, 2014. The 2014 CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship continue at full speed in Cesenatico, one of the most popular seaside resorts on Italy’s Adriatic Riviera. A large crowd flocked to the venue also on Friday for the second day of action on five different courts thereby following and cheering the young players who paid back with exciting rallies and powerful shots to confirm their status of stars in the making of this sport.
At the end of pool play a few teams have clearly asserted their intention to step on to the podium on Sunday. After the late withdrawal of the gold medallists from the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin, their compatriots Ilya Leshukov and Aleksander Margiev seems to be a major force to be reckoned with as they swept all of their matches in Pool C. The same feat was achieved also by Germany’s Niklas Rudolf/Clemens Wickler and Lithuania’s Arnas Rumsevicius/Lukas Kazdailis in Pool E and H, respectively.
Rudolf, a bronze medallist from last year’s U18 European Championship in Belarus, and Wickler, did not drop a set in the three matches they have contested so far in the tournament. They seem to outclass their opponents both physically and technically and they did so also on Friday in their last pool match where they routed Spain’s Oscar Jimenez/Alejandro Huerta 21-16, 21-12. “It is our first time together in such an important international competition,” Rudolf and Wickler said. “This means that we are still fine tuning our team work and we develop our chemistry match after match but we are satisfied with what we have showed so far. We did not have any special expectations coming here but with the support of our fans from the stands and the public in general we hope to make it to the last and decisive stages of the tournament. The people have just filled up the stands of this nice stadium and the feeling is great here.”
Moving to the women’s tournament, three teams have so far left their mark on the competition, namely Finland’s Niina Ahtiainen/Anniina Parkkinen, reigning U20 European champions Nicole Eiholzer and Nina Betschart of Switzerland and Germany’s Sarah Schneider and Nadja Glenzke. They all have what it takes to make the podium. Schneider and Glenzke, similarly to their compatriots Rudolf and Wickler, had never played together going into this tournament, but they seem to be well aware of their abilities and, at the same time, they take this adventure quite easy. “We know that we are a strong team, physically but also because of the team work we have been able to develop,” they say. “We are confident that it’s going to be tough for everyone to beat us. The level of this tournament is very high but we are ready to take on every opponent without fear, knowing that we want to play our best to make it to the very end.”
The home teams of Italy also had something to celebrate on Friday, especially as Simone Chinellato/Giacomo De Fabritiis and Felice Sette/Riccardo Mazzon joined the elite club of the teams with three victories in as many matches from pool play. This way both pairs moved on straight to the second round of the elimination phase, whereas their countrymen Simone Nicotra and Riccardo Vecchi will have to start from the first round playing there Finland’s Santeri Siren and Miro Määttänen, the fourth placed pair from the Youth Olympics in Nanjing.
In the women’s competition Margherita Bianchin/Federica Frasca (pictured) and Gaia Concetti/Agata Zuccarelli convincingly claimed a spot in the knock-out phase whereas home heroine Michela Lantignotti – who hails from the neighbouring city of Cesena – and partner Irene Enzo needed to edge the Israeli twins Kristina and Katrina Zilberman in their last pool match (21-9, 21-8) to achieve that same feat.
The tournament will enter its decisive phase already on Saturday with the start of the elimination round and matches set to begin as early as at 9 am.
Click here for more information and follow the actions from the centre court live and on demand at LAOLA1.tv
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