31/08/2016 21:00
Jurmala Masters to get started with exciting qualification round
2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Jurmala Masters
Jurmala, Latvia, August 31, 2016. Action at the 2016 CEV Jurmala Masters will get underway on Thursday morning with the first matches scheduled for the qualification round set to commence at 11am local time. The anticipation is mounting in Jurmala for the largest Beach Volleyball tournament ever organised in any of the Baltic countries. An imposing 2,800-seat stadium has been set up right by the sea providing the perfect stage for some of Europe’s up-and-coming teams to shine.
All matches will be streamed live and for free at LAOLA1.tv with an extensive TV coverage due to follow later this weekend in conjunction with the final stages of the tournament, whose eventual winners will secure a quota spot for their country to next year’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships.
There are four spots per gender at stake on Thursday to join the Main Draw of a tournament that caps a truly successful 2016 Beach Volleyball season and which is also a rehearsal ahead of the European Championship Final that Jurmala – aka Latvia’s ‘summer capital’ – will be hosting in the summer of 2017.
One Latvian team – Toms Smedins/Aleksandrs Solovejs – will be chasing a spot in the Main Draw playing Ukraine’s Mykola Babich and Iaroslav Gordieiev in the first round of the qualification. These teams know each other pretty well also from zonal events – and Babich/Gordieiev are to be watched very closely since earlier this summer they caused a sensation by eliminating Germany’s elite tandem Kay Matysik and Jonathan Erdmann from the race for a spot to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympics, doing so at the CEV Continental Cup Final in Stavanger, Norway.
Austria’s Moritz Pristauz-Telsnigg, who last Sunday claimed silver at the U22 European Championship in Thessaloniki, is back with his regular partner Martin Ermacora and will take on Sweden’s Simon Boman/Martin Appelgren for a spot in the second round. Pristauz-Telsnigg is a young, promising player whose resume also includes a silver medal from the 2013 edition of the U18 EuroBeachVolley.
It will also be interesting to follow the Russian derby between Igor Velichko/Maxim Sivolap – bronze medallists at last year’s U22 European Championship – and their compatriots Maksim Khudyakov and Yury Bogatov. Khudyakov/Bogatov are a late entry to the qualification of the Jurmala Masters and their participation was confirmed only on Wednesday night following the withdrawal / no show of Lithuania’s Arnas Rumsevicius and Lukas Kazdailis. 30-year-old Bogatov is an experienced player who also competed at the European Championship Final in 2010 along with Sergei Prokopiev.
No team from Latvia is entering the women’s qualification but there is plenty to look forward to. Viktoryia Siakretava and Viktoryia Shalayeuskaya of Belarus made history earlier this summer by claiming the first ever European medal for their country when settling for the bronze at the U20 European Championship in Antalya, Turkey. They will start their campaign in Jurmala playing Swiss outsiders Kim Huber and Tatjana Greber. Lithuania’s ‘golden girls’ Monika Povilaityte and Ieva Dumbauskaite – who have won a number of medals at European and world age group competitions – have parted ways and will be competing with new partners – more specifically Karole Virbickaite and Irina Zobnina, respectively.
Two teams – Germany’s Teresa Mersmann/Isabel Schneider and Russia’s Yulia Abalakina/Ksenia Dabizha – have received a bye in the first round following a reduction in the number of entries due to (late) withdrawals.
Click here for further information including detailed entry lists and a match programme
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