10/08/2014 19:00
2013 European champions Herrera/Gavira win gold at Biel/Bienne Masters
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Biel/Bienne Masters
Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, August 10, 2014. The first-seeded pair of the tournament, 2013 European champions Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira, won the gold medal of the men’s competition at the 2014 CEV Biel/Bienne Masters – fourth stop of this year’s CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – with another couple of strong performances to round out their stellar campaign on the shores of Lake Biel. The podium was completed by Poland’s Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz and by another Spanish team, Luis Alfredo Marco/Christian García who settled for silver and bronze, respectively. By winning the gold medal of the Biel/Bienne Masters, Herrera and Gavira also secured a spot for their country in the line-up of next year’s Beach Volleyball World Championships in the Netherlands.
The men’s tournament provided the perfect climax for the 2014 edition of the Biel/Bienne Masters, also known among fans and players alike as the “Beachmania”. The semi-finals and final matches scheduled for Sunday delighted the large Swiss audience with a series of world-class matches whereby the eventual winners of the tournament were crowned on Sunday late afternoon.
In an all-Spanish semi-final game, the pre-favourites Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira started out with a strong performance the final day of their campaign on Swiss soil. The number 6 of the current FIVB World Ranking easily outplayed their compatriots Marco/Garcia and needed only 19 minutes to stamp their speedy 21-16, 21-14 victory.
The second semi-final starring Germany’s Tim Holler/Jonas Schröder and Poland’s Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz went a totally different way, for it was a very tight game from the start to the end. The winners of this year’s World University Championships, Holler and Schröder, lost the first set by 21-23 but then fought their way back to win an incredibly close second set by 34-32. Still, their opponents from Poland had some more energy left for the tie-break which they took by 15-12 to progress to the gold medal match of the Biel/Bienne Masters.
Holler and Schröder still had the opportunity to crown their stellar campaign with a bronze medal, but they were out of breath after this long challenge in the semi-finals. Marco/García, on the other hand, swept them away (21-11, 21-15) to add a second medal to Spain’s tally in the competition.
Back to the court for the gold medal match, Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera imposed their rule right from the start and even though Kadziola/Szalankiewicz worked hard to cut their deficit, they couldn’t stop the triumphal march of the Spaniards. Gavira and Herrera finished their job after only 31 minutes (21-17, 21-10) to claim the gold medal after dropping only one set throughout the tournament.
Adrian Gavira said that this victory is very important for the team: “The final match was tougher than the result may suggest. We took advantage of our strong side-out. We played a lot of games this season and, as a consequence, felt a little bit tired, but this big victory at the 2014 CEV Biel/Bienne Masters is very important not only because of the spot we got for the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in the Netherlands, but also because it represents a big boost of energy and confidence for the next tournaments coming up on the FIVB World Tour.”
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