22/05/2015 20:18
Latvian teams rock the day at Jurmala Masters
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Jurmala Masters
Jurmala, Latvia, May 22, 2015. The Main Draw of the Jurmala Masters – first stop of this year’s CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – started on Friday morning on Majori beach with perfect weather conditions and a positive atmosphere providing the perfect stage for Europe’s best Beach Volleyball players and also for the many fans in attendance. It was a very positive day also for the home teams of Latvia who started their quest for glory with an impeccable record of six wins in as many matches they contested.
The 24 teams of the Main Draw were split into eight pools of three each with the top two moving on to the knock-out stage which is set to get underway on Saturday morning.
Home hero Aleksandrs Samoilovs – a native of Jurmala – and Janis Smedins cruised to a 2:0 victory (21-15, 21-16) over Switzerland’s Mats Kovatsch and Jonas Kissling to open the programme on the centre court. Latvia’s second team to take the sand – Ruslans Sorokins and Aleksandrs Solovejs – had to work a little harder but they eventually stamped a 2:0 win (21-19, 22-20) in their match with Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor. 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Martins Plavins and partner Hermans Egleskalns – who switched to the beach earlier this year after previously playing indoors also for Latvia’s national team – needed two sets as well to claim their first victory in pool play edging Greece’s Georgios Kotsilianos and Nikos Zoupanis (21-19, 21-19).
Sorokins and Solovejs eventually topped the charts of their pool as they recorded their second straight victory in the afternoon, this time after seeing off Austria’s Lorenz Petutschnig and Tobias Winter by 21-14, 21-19. Plavins and Egleskalns emulated their countrymen by cruising to a 21-18, 21-15 win over Germany’s twins David and Bennet Poniewaz with Samoilovs/Smedins completing the Latvian party as they also kept their immaculate record in the competition with a 21-15, 21-15 win over Belarus’ Aliaksandr Dziadkou and Aliaksandr Kavalenka.
The other teams – beside the three Latvian duos – qualified for the knock-out stage are Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel and Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz, France’s Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson, Premysl Kubala/Jan Hadrava and Jan Dumek/Robert Kufa of the Czech Republic, Russia’s Yury Bogatov/Maksim Khudyakov, Greece’s Kotsilianos/Zoupanis, Belarus’ Dziadkou/Kavalenka, Italy’s Matteo and Paolo Ingrosso, Austria’s Daniel Müllner/Peter Eglseer, Spain’s Francisco Alfredo Marco/Christian Garcia and Belgium’s sensation Dries Koekelkoren/Tom Van Walle.
The competition will now continue on Saturday, May 23, starting at 10 am local time with 16 teams still in the race. The 1/8 finals will be played from 10 to 2 pm and will be followed by the quarterfinals from 3 pm through to 7 pm. The players’ party will then be held where everyone is invited to attend free of charge to meet Europe’s best Beach Volleyball players, take photos and get their autographs. On Saturday the opening festival of the summer season will take place in Jurmala as well, with an extensive cultural and entertainment programme. Europe’s best Beach Volleyball players will also be invited to leave their footprints on Majori beach. On the final day of the Jurmala Masters, i.e. on Sunday, they can be viewed by spectators and fans alike on the beach right next to the centre court.
Starting from Saturday, fans will have to buy tickets to enter the venue and follow the actions of Europe’s Beach Volleyball elite. These can be purchased at the Bilesu serviss ticket counters across Latvia or on the Internet via the website www.bilesuserviss.lv
Starting from the quarterfinals, the matches of the Jurmala Masters will be broadcast across Latvia by TV 6, whilst live streaming will be provided for free by LAOLA1.tv for the global audience. As for the matches of the Latvian teams, starting from pool play on Friday, these will be available on LMT network mobile phones as well as on the Internet at http://straume.lmt.lv, http://delfi.lv and http://sportacentrs.com
Click here for further information or visit the official website http://jurmala.beachvolley.lv
Visit also the official Facebook page and Twitter account of the Jurmala Masters
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