07/09/2014 19:47
Germany and Switzerland claim U20 titles in Cesenatico
2014 CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship - Men & Women
Cesenatico, Italy, September 7, 2014. The 2014 edition of the CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship came to a close on Sunday with teams from Germany and Switzerland topping the charts of the men’s and women’s competition respectively. If Niklas Rudolf and Clemens Wickler celebrated their first gold medal as a team, Switzerland’s Nina Betschart and Nicole Eiholzer wrote history becoming the first team to retain their title in this age group. Betschart/Eiholzer had won gold also last year in Vilnius and on Sunday they bettered the record of Marleen van Iersel, as the Dutch queen of the beach had finished in first place twice as well, but not in consecutive editions of the tournament – she did so in 2005 and 2007 – and with two different partners (Marloes Wesselink and Daniëlle Remmers).
Niklas Rudolf and Clemens Wickler lived up to the expectations as they were spotted for a spot on the podium after they left their mark already in the first stages of the tournament. Rudolf and Wickler edged Russia’s Aleksander Margiev and Ilya Leshukov in the final match by 21-16, 21-17. The last time a German pair had won gold was in 2006 when Jonathan Erdmann and Stefan Windscheif finished first in Ankaran, Slovenia. This is not the first European medal for the German tandem since Rudolf and Wickler had teamed up to win bronze at the U18 Championship in 2012 and last year Rudolf had claimed another bronze medal in the same age group together with David Sossenheimer. “It is a great feeling,” they said. “It has been a fantastic tournament, and we were not quite sure we would take the gold medal since we got to play very strong teams throughout this championship. However, we were able to impose our game and in the end we did it.”
Lithuania’s Arnas Rumsevicius and Lukas Kazdailis claimed the first medal for their country in this age group by upsetting home heroes Felice Sette/Riccardo Mazzon in the bronze medal match (21-18, 21-16). Rumsevicius and Kazdailis had finished fourth at last year’s U19 World Champs in Portugal and follow now in the footsteps of their compatriots Ieva Dumbauskaite and Monika Povilaityte who won a bronze medal two years ago in the U20 women’s competition.
Switzerland’s Nina Betschart and Nicole Eiholzer confirmed their superiority in this age group routing Austrian twins Nadine and Teresa Strauss in the women’s final (21-16, 21-13) to claim their second consecutive title. The Strauss twins, on the other hand, were happy to improve on the bronze medal they had won last year in Vilnius. Nadine and Teresa had previously edged Irene Enzo and Michela Lantignotti of Italy in the semis and the local heroines had to be content with fourth place as they lost the bronze medal match to Poland’s Katarzyna Kociolek and Jagoda Gruszczynska (12-21, 18-21). This is the third medal for Gruszczynska in this age category after she and Kociolek had won gold in 2012 before in 2013 she had to be content with silver in tandem with Karolina Baran.
“We are very happy that we can bring back this title to Switzerland,” the winners said shortly before the medal ceremony. “It has been tough but in the end we could confirm the title we won last year. We deserved this even though we felt very tense and nervous before the final. We have been playing together for many years already and the feeling we have developed was instrumental to our success and to the achievement of the goal we had set for this tournament.”
The last day of the tournament was again attended by a large crowd that did never stop cheering for all players starring on the Arena Beach. The Championship draws to a close with the positive reviews given by the players and officials of the 30 countries that joined the actions and that were all pleased with the general organisation of the tournament as well as with the location right on the beach of one of Italy’s most popular seaside resorts on the Adriatic Riviera.
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