01/09/2015 10:34
Continental Cup resumes later this weekend with three Round 4 tournaments
2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup - Men & Women
Luxembourg, September 1, 2015. The 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup will resume later this week with its fourth stage where teams from as many as 16 countries per gender will continue to chase their Olympic dream. The eventual winners and runners-up of the four Round 4 tournaments will join those who came out on top in Round 3 earlier this season to compose the line-up for the Continental Cup Finals scheduled for next year. As it happened back in 2012, the country finishing first at the end of the competition will secure a spot for the Beach Volleyball tournament of the Rio 2016 Olympics.
All Round 4 tournaments will be played according to the same ‘country vs country’ format already used in the previous stages of the Continental Cup which has drawn positive reviews from players, coaches and fans alike.
Three out of four Round 4 tournaments will be taking place this coming weekend with the Continental Cup stopping in Sochi, the venue of the 2014 Winter Olympics, and returning to Vilnius (LTU) and Thessaloniki (GRE) after both cities played host also to Round 3 events back in early May. The fourth and final Round 4 tournament will then follow on September 11-12 in Ashdod, Israel.
Some of Europe’s best Beach Volleyball players will be carrying the hopes of their respective countries later this week. After their disappointing performance in Round 3, Russia’s men will be trying to get back on track exploiting the advantage of playing on home turf in Sochi and relying on their best tandems, i.e. Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Baku 2015 European Games silver medallists Dmitry Barsouk/Yaroslav Koshkarev. Latvia will be their toughest rival there on the shores of the Black Sea with a delegation that includes the likes of Baku 2015 European Games gold medal winners Martins Plavins/Haralds Regza and of Ruslans Sorokins/Toms Smedins. Slovakia and Belarus are the other teams set to compete in Sochi on Friday and Saturday, September 4-5. The competition is expected to be quite tense and dramatic also for the women travelling to the Russian seaside resort with France and Latvia being probably the ‘hottest’ contenders for first and second place but England and Sweden are not to be ruled out from that race.
As for the Pool taking place in Vilnius, back from injury Edouard Rowlandson will team up with Youssef Krou to compose France’s strongest pair and ‘Les Bleus’ will be vying for top honours in Lithuania’s capital together with countrymen Jean-Baptiste Daguerre/Yannick Salvetti. As for Austria, the delegation from the alpine country will be missing their top pair Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst and therefore count on Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl and Tobias Winter/Lorenz Petutschnig in their effort to finish first or second in the pool. Finland and hosts Lithuania complete the field. Multiple age-group European medallists Monika Povilaityte (pictured) and Ieva Dumbauskaite – who just claimed bronze at the U22 European Championship in Portugal – will carry Lithuania’s hopes of a spot in the women’s finals in a pool that also features teams from Belgium, Slovenia and Ukraine.
Switzerland’s men will be the team to beat in Thessaloniki but hosts Greece, Ukraine and outsiders England will all be trying to leave their mark on the competition and to make the final stage of the Continental Cup. The home heroines of Greece will have in 2012 European silver medallists Vasiliki Arvaniti/Maria Tsiartsiani their ‘anchor-women’ but stiff competition is expected from the Finns who will count on Riikka Lehtonen/Taru Lahti and the young pair Essi Hasu/Anniina Parkkinen in their quest for a spot in the finals. Outsiders Scotland and Azerbaijan are the other teams that were drawn in Pool C and will compete at Avant Garde Sports Club in Greece’s second largest city.
Click here for further information on the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup
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