21/08/2015 20:00
Portugal ready to host Europe’s rising Beach Volleyball stars
2015 CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship
Porto, Portugal, August 21, 2015. The 2015 edition of the CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship is set to take place from August 26 through 30 at Ribeira Beach, Albufeira do Azibo, in Macedo de Cavaleiros. Macedo de Cavaleiros is a city situated in northern Portugal in the Bragança district; it is well known for its touristic features such as Albufeira do Azibo, which is considered one of Portugal’s finest beaches.
Azibo’s famous sand has already played host to WEVZA U21 and U19 Beach Volleyball Championships and for six years in a row also to the Beach Volleyball National Championship Finals as well as to the U20 and U18 Gira-Praia’s Finals. Next week this same venue will provide the perfect stage for Europe’s U22 best players with 32 teams per gender representing about thirty countries vying for honours.
In recent years, the Portuguese beaches have played host to several under-age competitions, such as the 2010 U18 European Championship, the 2011 U23 European Championship and the 2010, 2013 and 2014 U19 World Championships, with all of these events held in Porto, whereas the 2014 WEVZA U21 and 2015 U21/U19 Championships have taken place at Macedo de Cavaleiros.
The U22 age group is seen as a crucial step for Beach Volleyball prospects who are hoping to compete on the World Tour in the near future. So, there are many title contenders, starting with Christian Sandlie Sørum and Runar Torsvik Sannarnes of Norway who claimed the European title last year in Turkey, to continue with Germany’s Niklas Rudolf and Clemens Wickler, gold medallists at last year’s U20 European Championship in Italy or Poland’s Michal Bryl and Kacper Kujawiak who are the reigning U21 world champions. Among the medal contenders we can also single out France’s Romain Di Giantommaso/Maxime Thiercy, bronze medallists at last year’s U21 World Championship and the other tandem from Norway formed by Anders Berntsen Mol and Mathias Berntsen, who finished in fifth place at that same competition.
As for the host country, some of the Portuguese players set to compete next week on home sand are already used to this kind of stage despite their young age. Diogo Ferreira and Jose Silva were eighth at last year’s U20 European Championship, ninth at the U19 World Champs in 2013 and are the silver medallists from the 2014 WEVZA U21 tournament. Francisco Pombeiro will once again team up with José Jardim after they claimed ninth place at the 2013 U19 World Champs and a silver medal at the WEVZA U21 competition this year. The Portuguese duo clinched also their third straight U20 national title a week ago. Finally, Bernardo Silva and Bernardo Leite were 25th at the U19 World Championship in 2014, showing room for improvement to progress as a team.
As for the women’s competition, the Polish teams of Jagoda Gruszczynska/Karolina Baran and Katarzyna Kociolek/Dorota Strag, 2014 U22 European gold and silver medallists respectively, will find their toughest rivals in Lithuania’s Monika Povilaityte/Ieva Dumbauskaite, winners of a number of medals at various age-group competitions and bronze medallists at this year’s Baku European Games. Ukraine’s Elizaveta Sulima, who was fourth at last year’s U22 European Championship and fifth at the U21 World Champs with former partner Dar’ya Udovenko, will compete alongside Angelina Lesunenko, who was ninth at the U20 European Championship in 2013.
As for Portugal, Vanessa Paquete, silver medallist at the WEVZA U21 tournament in 2014, will team up with Margarida Vasques, a 16-year-old player who has already her share of big competitions (2014 U17 World Champs in Acapulco and U18 European Championship in Kristiansand, Norway). With less experience but equally eager to achieve a good result, are Bárbara Freitas and Sara Lourenço, who finished fourth at the U19 WEVZA tournament this year, and Mariana Maia who will play with Margarida Reis, who recorded a fourth place for Portugal at the U21 WEVZA tournament in 2014.
The conditions for a great tournament are all there and this will certainly last in the players’ memories, not only from the sporting point of view, but also because of the cultural exchange with their peers and the great landscape that surrounds the venue.
Local teams are confident
The National Beach Volleyball Coordinator, Ricardo Rocha is aware of the strength that Europe’s best U22 players can rely on, but that is not enough to take the confidence out of his pupils.
“It’s tough to make predictions at this point. Our primary goal is to make it through the group stage knowing that this is already a difficult task. We are somehow depending on the draw. There will be here several teams that already compete at the highest level so we have to bring our best game to match those teams and overcome the others,” he says.
The athletes that are representing Portugal are the product of the Beach Volleyball High Performance Training Centres of the Portuguese Volleyball Federation, especially from the Gira-Praia project, which aims to prepare Beach Volleyball athletes throughout the year.
“Gira-Praia has a great margin of grow and improvement. We have noticed that the athletes identify more than ever with Beach Volleyball and we are starting to have players who are only practicing Beach Volleyball all year round, like the ones from the Algarve and Alentejo regions. We know that it is very difficult to train during the winter season, especially in the north of the country. A great spirit of sacrifice is required, but I’m expecting a great opening from the indoor players to choose Beach Volleyball instead. We had many entries in our competitions and even more than 70 players attending practices,” Rocha concludes.
Click here for more information or visit the official website www.fpvoleibol.pt/U22
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