Antalya, Turkey, May 17, 2014.  The European contingent for the beach volleyball tournament at the 2014 Youth Olympics is now complete.  By winning the last three matches of the second elimination round in the men’s 2014 CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final in Antalya, the teams of Finland, Russia and Poland secured their tickets to Nanjing.

In the Nordic derby, Finland’s Miro Maattanen / Santeri Siren shut out Norway’s Anders Berntsen Mol / Mathias Berntsen by 2:0 (21-15, 21-17) in 33 minutes to claim their Olympic visa.

“The last game was very tough for us and it was our best performance so far,” Santeri Siren admitted.  “This facility in Antalya is really nice.  We hope we get the same results in China.”

“We were nervous before the game, but we believed in ourselves,” added teammate Miro Maattanen.  “We said to each other to be brave.  I do not know what to say about the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.  I am just very happy.”

On the neighboring court, the 2013 U18 European champions Oleg Stoyanovskiy / Artem Yarzutkin from Russia also needed 33 minutes to claim their victory against Spain.  They managed a 2:0 (21-15, 21-17) win over Hugo Rojas Martínez / Javier Huerta Pastor and may now start packing for Nanjing.

“We like this tournament a lot,” enthusiastic Oleg Stoyanovskiy said.  “The only bad thing was to have only two days to play.  We are really happy to achieve our goal here.  I hope we will win the gold medal at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.”

“We played very badly at this tournament because we competed at the Satellite last week and we were tired,” Artem Yarzutkin surprisingly confessed.  “If we had to play another game today to make it through to China, it would be very difficult for us.”

Fourth-seeded Poland managed to book the last Olympic spot by securing a surprisingly quick victory over second-seeded Latvia in what was supposed to be the battle of the giants in this round.  Dominik Kmiecik / Jakub Macura completely dominated the match against Raimonds Linins / Karlis Kaulins and finished their job in only 28 minutes for the final 2:0 (21-7, 21-16) to triumph as Youth Olympic participants.

The remaining matches in Antalya are set to determine the final standing in the 2014 CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final from the seventh place one, which will be used to fill any extra vacancies eventually offered to Europe by the IOC / FIVB.