30/07/2015 17:21
Europe’s elite in full swing at the world’s Beach Volleyball ‘Mecca’
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Klagenfurt, Austria, July 30, 2015. After completion of the second round of pool play, there are 11 teams with a record of two wins at the 2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final in Klagenfurt. This elite group includes also home heroes Alexander Horst and Clemens Doppler, but also the gold medallists from the 2013 and 2014 editions, i.e. Spain’s Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira and Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo, together with the silver medal winners of this year’s FIVB World Championships, Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst of The Netherlands. Doppler/Horst were the only Austrian team to leave the centre court after celebrating a victory as all other home duos had to accept defeat before the always passionate local crowd. This happened also to Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl, who hail from the region of Carinthia, as they suffered their second setback in the tournament in the match with Italy’s Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula (pictured), whose sky serves were among the highlights of the day for the many fans at Austria’s largest sandbox.
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Pool A
Top-seeded Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst of The Netherlands added another victory to their European Championship campaign in Klagenfurt as they beat Turkey’s rising stars Volkan Gögtepe/Murat Giginoglu in three sets. Nummerdor/Varenhorst started well (21-15), but could not avoid Gögtepe/Giginoglu’s comeback in the following set (18-21). As they fought relying on all their experience, the Dutch team managed to take the decider (15-9). Their second victory guarantees Nummerdor/Varenhorst a spot in the elimination round.
On Friday morning they are going to fight for first place against the Swiss team of Philip Gabathuler and Mirco Gerson who celebrated their second pool win over Czech Republic’s Premysl Kubala/Jan Hadrava. Gabathuler/Gerson succeeded in doing so after a real thriller. The Czechs seized the opening set (22-20), but the Swiss guys fought back and tied the game (21-19). The tie-break went into overtime, with Gabathuler/Gerson eventually having the upper hand at 19-17.
As the top two spots in this pool are already booked, Gögtepe/Giginoglu will be playing Kubala and Hadrava on Friday for the third place available in the elimination round.
Pool B
Latvia’s ‘Lion King’ Aleksandrs Samoilovs and his teammate Janis Smedins had no problems at all in their matchup with Spain’s Francisco Alfredo Marco and Christian Garcia in Thursday’s Pool B action. After a close first set (21-19), Samoilovs/Smedins showed an even better performance in the second stanza (21-14) and they shattered Marco/Garcia’s dreams of winning their first match in Pool B.
Local heroes Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl tried hard to get back on track after losing their opening match on Wednesday when they took on Italy’s Alex Ranghieri/Adrian Carambula. The Italians stumbled in the opening set (16-21) when Carambula missed some of his well-known sky serves as the Uruguayan-born player made his first centre court appearance in Klagenfurt. Starting from the second set, Ranghieri/Carambula took control of the game and came back impressively (21-14). Even a red card for Ranghieri in the decider couldn’t stop the Italians from winning their second match in Pool B (15-10).
The fans can look forward to a real Beach Volleyball highlight on Friday morning when Samoilovs/Smedins and Ranghieri/Carambula are going to fight for the top spot in Pool B. Meanwhile Huber/Seidl will try everything to find a way into the next round playing Marco/Garcia.
Pool C
The gold medallists from this year’s FIVB Fuzhou Open, Germany’s Lars Flüggen and Markus Böckermann, caused one of a few sensations on Thursday when they upset Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands. Flüggen and Böckermann seized the opening set of their match with the 2013 world champions (21-17) before their opponents fought back with a terrific 21-10 in the second. The tie-break was a close affair with Flüggen and Böckermann having the upper hand at 15-13 for their first win in the capital of Carinthia.
Right now Pool C is topped by the Ingrosso twins of Italy after Paolo and Matteo survived a three-set match with Austria’s Peter Eglseer and Daniel Müllner on centre court. The Italians – winners of this year’s Jurmala Masters, the first stop of the 2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – won 21-14, 18-21, 15-12 to make sure they will continue their quest for glory in the elimination phase regardless of the result of their matchup with Brouwer and Meeuwsen coming up on Friday morning.
Pool D
There was also a second pool win on Thursday for home heroes Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst. The Austrians proved to be in great shape against Marco Caminati/Enrico Rossi. Still the Italians showed great attitude and gave Doppler/Horst a real fight in both sets (22-20, 21-17). Doppler/Horst are close to win Pool D and would secure a top ten finish with another victory on Friday when they will face Poland’s Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz.
After the surprising loss to Caminati/Rossi on the opening day, the Polish guys celebrated their first win Thursday as they played Aliaksandr Kavalenka/Aliaksandr Dziadkou from Belarus. At least the first two sets of the three-set-match were really thrilling (24-22, 22-24). In the decider Kadziola/Szalankiewicz left no space for further discussions and won easily (15-5).
Doppler/Horst is the only team in Pool D that is already qualified for the elimination phase of the European Championships. Kavalenka/Dziadkou need to win over Caminati/Rossi to keep alive their chances to advance to the next round. Both Kadziola/Szalankiewicz and Caminati/Rossi can still win Pool D, but could also face elimination in case of another loss.
Pool E
Both of Pool E favourites, Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo from Italy and Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov of Russia, kept their perfect record on Thursday and will fight for first place on Friday morning.
2014 European champions Nicolai/Lupo showed a great performance when they beat Germany’s Sebastian Fuchs/Thomas Kaczmarek in two sets (21-18, 21-15). After they had lost one set on Wednesday to Chris Gregory/Jake Sheaf of England, they improved their level and did not face any problems to secure their second win in the competition.
Russia’s Semenov/Krasilnikov – who last Sunday had finished fourth at the FIVB Grand Slam in Yokohama – played another great game against Gregory/Sheaf and secured a clear win in two sets (21-13, 21-15).
The winner of Friday’s duel between Gregory/Sheaf and Fuchs/Kaczmarek will stay in the tournament and finish on third place in Pool E thereby making it to the elimination round.
Pool F
Germany’s interim-tandem Jonathan Erdmann/Clemens Wickler are developing from day to day. Team rookie Wickler and his experienced partner Erdmann are on a good way to win Pool F after they secured their second victory on Thursday. Norway’s Iver Andreas Horrem and Geir Eithun, who achieved a surprising opening win over Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak of Poland on Wednesday, tried to challenge the Germans as well. Erdmann/Wickler presented themselves in good shape – as they had done on Wednesday as well – and cruised to their second Klagenfurt victory in just 34 minutes (21-18, 21-13).
Eleventh seeded tandem Kantor/Losiak got back on track when they beat Georgios Kotsilianos and Nikos Zoupanis of Greece in two sets (21-13, 21-19).
After day two, everything is still possible in Pool F, with the exception of the elimination of Erdmann/Wickler, who already have two wins. Kotsilianos/Zoupanis need to win over Horrem/Eithun on Friday to stay alive in the tournament. Kantor/Losiak still have the chance to finish on top of Pool F if they beat Erdmann/Wickler Friday morning.
Pool G
2013 European champions Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira seem to really like Klagenfurt as they have come back to the place where they seized the continental crown two years ago to sweep two straight matches without dropping a set. On Thursday they stamped a 21-18, 21-16 win over Poland’s youngsters Michal Bryl and Kacper Kujawiak to secure a spot in the knockout phase. Switzerland’s Jonas Kissling and Alexei Strasser upset France’s Youssef Krou and Yannick Salvetti (21-16, 21-16) – a tandem that was formed only a few days ago following the injury of Krou’s regular partner, Edouard Rowlandson – to celebrate their first hurrah in Klagenfurt.
On Friday Kissling/Strasser, Krou/Salvetti and Bryl/Kujawiak will all fight for the right to continue their journey at the world’s Beach Volleyball ‘Mecca’ once they take on their last pool match.
Pool H
Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel upset the Austrian fans in attendance at the country’s largest sandbox with their 21-16, 21-16 win over home heroes Tobias Winter and Lorenz Petutschnig. This is the second victory for the 2013 bronze medallists who have this way made sure they will continue their campaign in the elimination round.
The silver medal winners from the Baku 2015 European Games, Russia’s Dmitri Barsouk and Yaroslav Koshkarev, did not really show any mercy for Stefan Windscheif and his partner Alexander Walkenhorst, who turned 27 on Thursday. It was a pretty close fight (23-21, 21-18) but Barsouk and Koshkarev were the ones to celebrate in the end.
Windscheif and Walkenhorst will be trying to get back on track on Friday when they play pool leaders Fijalek and Prudel to complete their duties in the group.
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