31/07/2015 15:09
Austrian party continues at world’s Beach Volleyball ‘Mecca’
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Klagenfurt, Austria, July 31, 2015. A sell-out crowd enjoyed the last round of men’s pool play in Klagenfurt on Friday morning and early afternoon. The match starring home heroes Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst drove the audience just crazy as they delivered a terrific performance (21-10, 21-18) in their matchup with Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz of Poland to claim their third straight victory and with it they also moved on straight to the second stage of the elimination round. The Austrian party continued with Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl who were able to win their make-or-break bout with Spain’s Francisco Alfredo Marco/Christian Garcia to stay alive in the competition. Apart from Doppler/Horst, other teams with a perfect record from pool play include 2015 world silver medallists Nummerdor/Varenhorst of The Netherlands, reigning European champions Nicolai/Lupo of Italy, 2013 gold medallists Herrera/Gavira of Spain, Latvia’s Beach Volleyball icons Samoilovs/Smedins and Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel.
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Pool A
The silver medallists from this year’s FIVB World Championships, Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst of The Netherlands fought for the top spot in Pool A against Swiss tandem Philip Gabathuler/Mirco Gerson as both teams boasted a perfect record of two wins in as many matches going into the final round of pool play.
After a great start by Nummerdor/Varenhorst (21-12), the Swiss guys found a way to come back and tied game (21-16). In the decider Nummerdor and Varenhorst changed gear once again and cruised to a comfortable 15-6 to secure first place in the pool and a bye in the opening round of the elimination phase.
Volkan Gögtepe/Murat Giginoglu of Turkey and Czechs Premysl Kubala/Jan Hadrava knew that only the eventual winner of their matchup would have advanced to the first elimination round. Similarly to all other matches previously contested in Pool A, also the final one developed into a real Beach Volleyball thriller and was stretched to the tie-break. Kubala and Hadrava, the bronze medallists from the Baku 2015 European Games used their first chance to win the game (21-13, 13-21, 15-13).
Pool B
Latvia’s Beach Volleyball icons Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins confirmed their status of medal contenders – they already have silver from the 2013 and 2014 editions – with a clean sweep of their matches in Pool B. On Friday they beat Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula of Italy (21-17, 21-18) to secure first place in the final standing of their group and this way they also got a bye in the first stage of the knockout phase.
The 6,000-strong audience in Klagenfurt got something to celebrate as home heroes Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl bounced back from two straight losses from the previous days to edge Spain’s Francisco Alfredo Marco/Christian Garcia (21-18, 21-17) to stay alive in the tournament and get the right to continue their campaign for home glory after finishing third in their group.
Pool C
There were a couple of great fights in Friday’s final matches in Pool C. Germany’s Lars Flüggen/Markus Böckermann knew that they had to beat home heroes Peter Eglseer/Daniel Müllner to secure their spot in the elimination round. Their Austrian challengers were on the brick of elimination after two losses in their previous matches against Matteo Ingrosso/Paolo Ingrosso of Italy and Dutch tandem Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen.
Though they played in the early morning, a close fight developed on centre court in Klagenfurt. Eglseer/Müllner managed to keep both sets open and always stayed close to the Germans. In the end, as in their two other appearances, the more experienced team had the upper hand, and this time around Flüggen/Böckermann stamped a straight-set victory (21-18, 25-23).
2013 world champions Brouwer/Meeuwsen, who had surprisingly lost to Flüggen and Böckermann on Thursday, needed a second victory to secure first place in Pool C. As the Italian Ingrosso twins played below their standards, everything went just easy for the ‘Oranjes’ (21-12, 21-16).
After three days of tough and exciting matches, three teams – namely Flüggen/Böckermann, Brouwer/Meeuwsen and the Ingrossos – finished pool play with two wins each. Their results against Eglseer/Müllner were not taken into consideration to determine the final standing of the pool, so Brouwer/Meeuwsen finished first by virtue of their points ratio (1.25) followed by Flüggen/Böckermann in second place (0.94) just in front of the Ingrosso twins (0.88).
Pool D
The Austrian fans were driven crazy on Friday at noon as home heroes Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst claimed also their third pool match with Poland’s Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz and this way finished first in Pool D. The opening set came to an end very fast as Doppler and Horst stamped a terrific 21-10. Even if Kadziola/Szalankiewicz improved in the following stanza, they couldn’t prevent the Austrians from cruising to their third straight win (21-18).
In Pool D second match Aliaksandr Kavalenka/Aliaksandr Dziadkou of Belarus showed great fighting spirit and determination as they claimed the second set (24-22) as well as the tie-break (15-12) after losing the opening one (20-22) to Marco Caminati/Enrico Rossi of Italy. Shortly after the final game in Pool D, the charts however confirmed that Kavalenka and Dziadkou’s valiant efforts were not enough to make it to the knockout stage. Kadziola and Szalankiewicz ended up in second place with Caminati/Rossi settling for third.
Pool E
In Pool E two tandems, Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo and Russia’s Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov, had managed to keep a perfect record after two days of competition in Klagenfurt. Friday noon one of these world-class duos got to experience the taste of defeat as they crossed their ways playing for the final leadership in the pool. Fifth-seeded and reigning European champions Nicolai/Lupo won a close opening set (27-25) and got complete control of the game in the following one (21-15). The third victory lifted the Italians to the top of Pool E and directly into the 1/8 finals, while Semenov/Krasilnikov cemented their second place in the pool.
Much more thrilling was the second match between Germany’s Sebastian Fuchs/Thomas Kaczmarek and England’s Chris Gregory/Jake Sheaf, as the loser was facing elimination. After Fuchs/Kaczmarek had taken the first set (21-17), Gregory/Sheaf tried everything to come back and tie the game. Even if they were on a good way (15:10) they ended up losing the second as well (20-22) with the Germans securing third place in Pool E and with it a ticket to the next round. Gregory/Sheaf finished their European Championship campaign in 25th place.
Pool F
Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor finished pool play in first place after cruising to a comfortable 21-18, 21-16 win in their matchup with Germany’s outsiders Jonathan Erdmann and Clemens Wickler who teamed up shortly before the Championship following an injury to Erdmann’s regular partner, Kay Matysik. Erdmann and reigning U20 European champion Wickler suffered their first setback in the tournament and had to be content with second place while Losiak/Kantor got back on track after losing their opening match in the pool to top the charts and get a bye in the first elimination round.
Greece’s Georgios Kotsilianos and Nikos Zoupanis had a make-or-break bout in their last pool match but they eventually delivered a great performance to stamp a 25-23, 21-18 win over Norway’s Iver Andreas Horrem/Geir Eithun and get the highly coveted third place in the final standing and with it also a pass to the next round.
Pool G
2013 European champions Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira have returned to the venue where they made the top of the podium two years ago and they look in fine form, even more after completing a clean sweep of their matches in the pool. On Friday they claimed a comfortable 21-15, 21-19 win over France’s Youssef Krou and Yannick Salvetti who are nevertheless through to the next round.
Even though they claimed their final pool game with Jonas Kissling and Alexei Strasser of Switzerland (21-18, 21-17), Poland’s youngsters Michal Bryl and Kacper Kujawiak had to settle for fourth place and are therefore eliminated from the competition. Kissling and Strasser got second place and the right to continue their campaign in the knockout phase.
Pool H
On Friday Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel of Poland added another victory to their 2015 Klagenfurt campaign to keep their perfect record in the competition when they beat Germany’s Alexander Walkenhorst/Stefan Windscheif in straight sets (21-17, 21-14). This is an important win for the 2013 European bronze medallists as they finished on top of Pool H with three wins, whereas Walkenhorst/Windscheif had to be content with third place.
Russia’s Yaroslav Koshkarev/Dmitri Barsouk succeed in their third match as well, where they beat young Austrians Tobias Winter/Lorenz Petutschnig in two sets (21-18, 21-19) to finish as runners-up in the group. Winter/Petutschnig’s European Championship has now ended with their second 25th place in Klagenfurt.
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