03/05/2015 19:06
Turkey cause sensation with victory over Latvia to move on straight to Continental Cup finals
2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup - Men
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Fethiye, Turkey, May 3, 2015. The home heroes of Turkey caused a sensation on Sunday as they claimed the final match of Pool H with Latvia to move on straight to the last stage of the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup scheduled for next year. As for Latvia, they eventually settled for second place and together with England move on to Round 4 which is due to take place later this year. Croatia – the other team in Pool H – is eliminated from the competition.
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Latvia vs. Turkey 1:2
Latvia’s 2012 Olympic bronze medallists Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins – who were playing together for the first time since the end of the 2012 season – teamed up to record a 2:0 win (21-14, 21-16) over Turkey’s Selcuk Sekerci and Hasan Hüseyin Mermer to open the programme on Sunday at Fethiye Calis Beach. Murat Giginoglu and Volkan Gögtepe got Turkey back on track after their dramatic 2:1 win (21-13, 20-22, 15-13) over Ruslans Sorokins and Aleksandrs Solovejs. The eventual winner of this tie was to be determined at the ‘golden match’ that turned into yet another drama where Giginoglu and Gögtepe delivered a superb performance to edge past Plavins and Smedins at the tie-break (21-19, 16-21, 17-15).
The Turkish mentor Carlos Galetti said after this home triumph: “We are writing the history of Beach Volleyball in Turkey. Latvia is a very strong team and these guys won bronze at the London Olympics in 2012. The players, the coaching staff and the management of the Turkish Volleyball Federation have all contributed to this success. This was also a kind of exam for us. Before the game I told my players that Latvia has a great pair, but we can beat them if we play as a team. And this is what we did. We showed that we also are a strong team.”
Murat Giginoglu (pictured) commented: “We played strong teams here in Fethiye. I want to congratulate my teammate and also our coaches. We are very happy. We want to be in Rio and this is our only goal.”
Volkan Gögtepe added: “It was a real fight and the people of Fethiye provided us with some great support. We want to keep up this level of performance also in the future.”
Latvia vs. England 2:0
After this shocking defeat to Turkey, the Latvian teams returned to the sand later in the afternoon to cruise to two straight 2:0 wins over their opponents from England to claim second place in Pool H and get a better seeding for Round 4 which is due to follow in late August/early September of this year.
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