09/08/2015 18:30
Frenchmen Rémi Bassereau and Timothée Platre win gold at U18 Beach Volleyball European Championship
2015 CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championship
Riga, Latvia, August 9, 2015. Despite the fact that no Latvian teams were playing in the men’s final four of the 2015 CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championship, the crowd in Riga was treated with top class Beach Volleyball this Sunday. Rémi Bassereau / Timothée Platre crowned themselves as European U18 Beach Volleyball champions after beating Ukraine in the final. The bronze medal was conquered by Florian Breer / Yves Haussener from Switzerland.
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Semifinals
The first semifinal was a very interesting clash between Ukraine and Switzerland. The Ukrainians Tymofii Poluian / Dmytro Vietskiy, two physically impressive powerhouses, were taking on the much smaller, but very skillful Swiss guys Florian Breer / Yves Haussener. Until 12:12 in the third set the battle was undecided, but Ukraine proved to be a little more sharp in the end (12-21, 21-15, 15-13).
In the other semifinal Rémi Bassereau / Timothée Platre were too strong for the Lithuanian athletes Audrius Knasas / Aurimas Mazuras. In both sets the difference in score was minimal (21-19, 21-19), but France seemed to be in control the whole match.
Bronze medal match
In the small final the reigning U17 world champions Florian Breer / Yves Haussener from Switzerland showed the crowd they were really eager to win the bronze medal. After winning the first set convincingly (21-11), they sealed the deal in the middle of the second set. At 14:14 nothing was decided yet, but after a few strong actions Switzerland was comfortably leading (17:14). Ultimately Breer and Haussener won the second set with 21-17.
‘We are very satisfied with this bronze medal, this is an important win for us,’ said Yves Haussener after the match. ‘We know that if we play really good, we have a chance against almost all the teams.’
‘This tournament was filled with a lot of strong teams,’ added his partner Florian Breer. ‘I think the number of strong teams was even higher than at last year’s World Championships in Mexico.’
Final
At the U17 World Championships in Mexico in 2014, Timothée Platre won the bronze medal together with Marc Darrieux. This year he added a European gold medal to his resume together with Rémi Bassereau. The French team played very concentrated and powerful in the final and beat the strong Ukrainian team with 2-0 (21-17, 21-10).
‘We are very happy with this gold medal, because we worked really hard this summer and our only goal was this championship,’ said winner Timothée Platre. ‘The toughest match in this tournament was our pool play against Austria, the only match we lost. After this match we draw conclusions and came back strong in the elimination rounds. The atmosphere at the tournament was great, everything was organised really well and it was a pleasure to play in Riga.’
Silver medallist Tymofii Poluian from Ukraine also commented after the match: ‘In the finals we didn’t play as a team, we played too much as individuals. Yet we are satisfied with the medals we’ve earned. Beach Volleyball in Ukraine is popular and a lot of kids are playing it.’
Final ranking (first 8):
1. Bassereau/Platre (FRA)
2. Poluian/Vietskiy (UKR)
3. Breer/Haussener (SUI)
4. Knasas/Mazuras (LTU)
5. Jiménez/Huerta A. (ESP)
6. Lenc/Lewicki (POL)
7. Kindl/Ochaya (AUT)
8. Samoilovs M./Nasonovs (LAT)
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