01/08/2015 15:07
Germany’s Ludwig/Walkenhorst are Europe’s 2015 ‘Queens of the Beach’!
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Klagenfurt, Austria, August 1, 2015. ‘Veni, vidi, vici’. This popular Latin phrase sums up very well what Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst did in Klagenfurt where they swept seven matches in a row dropping only one set on their way to European gold. This is the third crown for Ludwig – who previously won on home soil in 2008 and 2010 with former partner Sara Goller – and the eighth European medal for the most successful player of all times since the championship was established in 1994. Ludwig also received the smart award for the most outstanding player of the tournament. As for partner Walkenhorst, following a 21-18, 21-18 win over Russia’s Evgenia Ukolova and Ekaterina Birlova, she could celebrate her first European ‘senior’ title thereby improving on the bronze medals she had to settle for in 2013 and 2014 as well. It was a historic day also for Poland as Kinga Kolosinska and Monika Brzostek claimed their country’s first ever medal at a European Championship Final after claiming the ‘small final’ with Slovakia’s Natalia Dubovcova and Dominika Nestarcova (21-17, 22-20).
Laura Ludwig also joins an elite club of triple European champions which also includes Italy’s Laura Bruschini and Annamaria Solazzi who topped the podium in 1997, 1999 and 2000
and Greece’s Vassou Karadassiou (2001, 2005 and 2007). Ukolova and Birlova’s silver is the first medal for Russia in the competition – and second overall – since Natalya Uryadova and Alexandra Shiryaeva won gold in 2006.
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The 2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship is being covered extensively also on Twitter and Facebook with the official hashtags being #EuroBeachVolley and #BeachEM15
They had travelled to Klagenfurt, the world’s Beach Volleyball ‘Mecca’, straight from Japan where last Sunday they had topped the charts of the FIVB Grand Slam in Yokohama and Germany’s Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst lived up to the expectations and delivered a strong performance also in the final to complete a clean sweep of their matches in Klagenfurt and claim the fictional title of Europe’s ‘Queens of the Beach’. They started out the final in impressive fashion with an 8:2 run in the opening set before Ukolova/Birlova responded in the same way with a series of seven points versus only two for their opponents. Ludwig and Walkenhorst called for the technical time-out leading by 11:10 and broke away again after actions resumed (15:11); Ukolova and Birlova erased their deficit down to one point at 17:16 but the combination of Ludwig’s spectacular defence and Walkenhorst’s outstanding presence at the net paved the way for the final 21-18. The story repeated itself in the second set where Ludwig and Walkenhorst changed gear halfway through moving the score from 9:8 to 14:10; the Germans were able to hold on to their lead and the celebrations got started at 21-18. Ludwig and Walkenhorst crowned their European campaign with gold after dropping only one set in the matches they contested in Klagenfurt.
“It feels almost unreal to win two tournaments within seven days,” Walkenhorst, who last year was side-lined by injury, said. “I am absolutely over the moon and would like to thank the audience here in Klagenfurt for their support, it was an amazing experience.”
The most decorated Beach Volleyball player of all times, Laura Ludwig, added: “To win our second tournament of the season here in Klagenfurt is just terrific and on top of this, it is a European Championship Final! Thank you to the fans who have been amazing as usual.”
The bronze medal match was preceded by an emotional moment as second referee Jonas Personeni of Switzerland proposed to his long-time girlfriend, Nina Hobi, before a crowd of more than 6,000. Hobi was caught by surprise but did not lose composure as she was due to perform as first referee of the ‘small final’ in Klagenfurt, the place where she had first met Jonas exactly eight years ago.
After this unconventional introduction, it was time for teams from Poland and Slovakia to play for the first ever European Championship medal for their respective country. Poland’s Monika Brzostek and Kinga Kolosinska broke away in the first set as their opponents, Natalia Dubovcova and Dominika Nestarcova, seemed not to have fully recovered from their semi-final match with Ludwig/Walkenhorst. Brzostek and Kolosinska edged ahead 13:8 and they held on to that lead with the first set eventually coming to an end at 21-17. The course of the game changed in the second set where Dubovcova/Nestarcova finally found more consistency; the score remained very tight for most of the time before the Slovak ladies claimed a three-point edge at 18:15 which seemed to be a good omen for their chances to go for a tie-break. However, Brzostek and Kolosinska did not tremble, fought back and used some errors of their opponents to draw level at 18. Nestarcova and Dubovcova asked for a time-out hoping to stop their rivals’ comeback, and once the actions resumed thy cashed the next rally and even had set ball at 20:19 but missed out on that. Brzostek and Kolosinska scored three in a row to finish it off at 22-20 and get the party started with their coaches and friends.
“We are just speechless,” Kolosinska said after acknowledging that she and her partner will share an honour that none can take them away anymore by becoming the very first women’s team from Poland to win a medal at the European Championship Final. Poland have been a major force in age-group competitions for a number of years already but they seemed not quite able to be as successful also at the ‘senior’ level. “We have been working very hard for three years and now we have very good coaches, something which makes the difference at this level,” Monika Brzostek said. “We do hope that this medal will help us get more support and will provide more women’s teams from Poland with the opportunity to play also on the World Tour. You need to join the international circuit in order to improve and become competitive at the highest level. As for the match in itself, Kinga did a superb job and also in the second set where we trailed in the score, we did not lose our focus and played with a lot of determination and resilience through to the end. This is a great result and now we are hoping that the guys will take another medal for Poland also in the men’s competition, that would be a perfect way to cap this great week here in Klagenfurt,” she concluded.
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