01/06/2014 18:00
Schwaiger sisters bid farewell winning gold at Baden Masters
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Baden Masters
Baden, Austria, June 1, 2014. A screenwriter could not have jotted down a better script for the 2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Baden Masters. Only a couple of days after announcing she would retire from competitive sport at the end of this tournament 2013 European champion Doris Schwaiger-Robl and her sister Stefanie bid farewell in the best possible way. They delighted the home crowd as they had done last summer at the European Championship – Final in Klagenfurt edging past Liliana Fernandez Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo of Spain in a remake of the gold medal match played last year at Austria’s largest sandbox. The Schwaiger siblings saw off their arch-rivals in two sets 23-21, 21-14 to celebrate yet another home success.
“It was nice,” said Doris Schwaiger after the final match of the Baden Masters as she could not hold back the tears dropping down her cheeks. Stefanie Schwaiger looked very emotional too but she could speak a little longer than her older sister: “It’s just amazing. To win our last tournament together is the best thing that could ever happen to us. We achieved this before our friends, family, and an amazing crowd. That was just perfect,” she said.
The final match was probably one of the best in the ten-year history of the Baden Masters. The Spaniards did not make it easy at all for the local heroines; the first set was extremely close as both teams could successfully complete their side-out. In the end, the Schwaiger sisters had the upper hand but only after a very close battle that ended at 23-21 for the reigning European champions. Doris and Stefanie then displayed a terrific performance in the second set where they were loudly supported by a packed centre court. “I have to congratulate them, we just could not find a way to resist the pressure of their defensive game,” Liliana said. The Spaniards could ward off one match ball for their opponents but Stefanie and Doris cashed their second chance to finish the game at 21-14 for yet another memorable day, the last one of their 15-year long career together. This way they could also claim their second gold medal in Baden after they had already topped the final standing last year.
Another two sisters, Finland’s twins Erika and Emilia Nyström claimed bronze; they even did not have to sweat to achieve that feat as Marleen van Iersel got slightly injured during the semi-final with the Schwaiger sisters and decided not to take any unnecessary risks only a couple of days before the start of the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final in Cagliari. This is the second medal for the Nyströms this year on the European circuit after they had won bronze also at the CEV Satellite in Antalya, Turkey in early May.
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