31/07/2015 19:51
41-year old Kubala through to second elimination round in Klagenfurt
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Klagenfurt, Austria, July 31, 2015. The bronze medal winners from the Baku 2015 European Games, Premysl Kubala and Jan Hadrava of the Czech Republic, continued their remarkable journey at the 2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final in Klagenfurt making the second round of the elimination phase. After surviving the pool phase of the tournament earlier on Friday with a hard-fought victory over Volkan Gögtepe and Murat Giginoglu of Turkey, they stretched their positive streak as they beat Russia’s Dmitry Barsouk and Yaroslav Koshkarev (17-21, 21-18, 15-12).
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Kubala, 41, is the oldest player competing in Klagenfurt but together with partner Jan Hadrava, who is 17 years younger, he composes a very successful tandem. Kubala made his debut at the world’s Beach Volleyball ‘Mecca’ back in 1997 (!) and after claiming the matchup with the Russians, he secured his fifth top ten finish at the tournament held on the shores of the Wörthersee. Barsouk and Koshkarev had finished second in Pool H but Kubala and Hadrava were able to edge past at the tie-break. On Saturday Kubala will have the chance to make the quarterfinals in Klagenfurt for the second time after doing so already in 2011 with former partner Petr Benes but 2013 world champions Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands are certainly not willing to agree with this scenario…
Apart from Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst, the Austrian fans will have another team to cheer on Saturday after Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl rounded out a long day on centre court edging Switzerland’s Philip Gabathuler and Mirco Gerson (21-18, 21-17).
Germany’s Alexander Walkenhorst/Stefan Windscheif claimed the ‘derby’ with the interim tandem consisting of Jonathan Erdmann and Clemens Wickler (21-16, 13-21, 15-11) and their countrymen Lars Flüggen/Markus Böckermann, gold medallists from this year’s FIVB Fuzhou Open, stamped a 21-14, 21-14 win in just 28 minutes over Italy’s Marco Caminati/Enrico Rossi to challenge 2013 European champions Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera of Spain in the next round. It wasn’t a positive afternoon for Italy since the Ingrosso twins also had to leave the tournament following their 20-22, 19-21 loss to Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz of Poland.
Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula put an end to Italy’s ‘debacle’ with their solid 21-12, 21-16 win over France’s Youssef Krou and Yannick Salvetti, another interim pair formed after the withdrawal of Edouard Rowlandson, to shape up a ‘derby’ with 2014 European champions Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo in the next round. Germany got something more to celebrate as Sebastian Fuchs/Thomas Kaczmarek also made the second stage of the elimination phase with their 21-18, 21-14 victory over Jonas Kissling and Alexei Strasser of Switzerland. Russia’s Konstantin Semenov and Viacheslav Krasilnikov, who on Sunday had finished in fourth place at the FIVB Grand Slam in Yokohama, had to fight for only one set before easily edging Greece’s Georgios Kotsilianos and Nikos Zoupanis (23-21, 21-9).
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