Matosinhos, Portugal, June 8, 2014.  The French tandem Marc Darrieux / Timothee Platre topped the final standings of the European Qualification Tournament for the men’s 2014 FIVB U17 World Championship.  France is also joined by Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Portugal and the Netherlands to represent Europe in the main draw battles in Mexico.  In addition, Israel, Poland, Italy, Turkey and Latvia secured spots in Acapulco’s qualification on July 15 for a second chance of making it to the main draw of this inaugural event.

On the last competition day in Matozhinos, Darrieux / Platre had a tough semifinal duel with Spain’s Jimenez Gutierrez / Alejandro Huerta Pastor, which they managed to win after three sets – 2:1 (15-21, 21-15, 15-8).  The French teenagers were more straightforward in the final against Switzerland’s Yves Haussener / Florian Breer, shutting them out by 2:0 (21-19, 21-13).

Marc and Timothee showed some spectacular beach volleyball were very pleased with the opportunity to travel to Mexico:  “We are thrilled as this was a victory backed by many years of hard work.  We have played together for three years now, training every day.  However, we also play indoor volleyball, so we need to balance both disciplines.  This tournament has been great, with a great atmosphere and good organization.  We are very satisfied,” the two French youngsters stated.

The runners-up from Switzerland were also extremely happy.  “This is the second international event we take part in and we have won all our matches until the final, which is just awesome,” they said.  “This event is very important, since it shows the door to the World Championship, and we have managed to enter that door. This tournament has shown great organization from transportation to food…  It is all very good.”

The Spanish team took the third place with a 25-minute convincing 2:0 (21-14, 21-12) victory over Russia’s Vasilii Ivanov / Alexey Trokhan.

The real intrigue of the day was in the battle for distribution of the places from fifth through eighth with the participation of two Portuguese duos and one each from Israel and the Netherlands.  One of these three countries would not be able to qualify directly for the main draw of the World Championship.  The Portuguese teams won both semifinal clashes, so they left it down to Dutch Nikita Artamonov / Mees Blom and Israeli Ofek Berman / Ben Yehuda settle it between each other.  The Oranje shut out the Mediterranean side by 2:0 (21-13, 21-8) to end up in the milestone seventh place, just above the cut-off line.

The Portuguese home heroes were very happy with the final result.  “It means a lot, we still cannot believe it...,” Joao Jardim exclaimed.  “We come from the south of Portugal and that means we had less time to prepare ourselves, but we were selected and I think we achieved the proposed goals.  This tournament turned out OK.  We had a great first match and in the second, although we did not play so well, we managed to win.  The third match against the Spanish team, which is very strong, was even, but unfortunately we lost it.  Our next match against Israel was much easier and we comfortably won.  With the exception of one or two teams, the overall level of the tournament was very good.”