05/09/2015 13:58
France and Norway to battle for men’s gold at #EuroBeachVolleyU20
2015 CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship
Larnaka, Cyprus, September 5, 2015. ‘Vive la France’ could quite suitably be the slogan summing up the men’s semis as the two Arnaud, Gauthier-Rat and Loiseau (pictured), were the first team to book its place in tonight’s ‘grand finale’ of the 2015 CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship. The French boys won their semi-final match against the Finns Santeri Siren and Miro Määttänen, the surprise team in the men’s competition, 2-0 (21-14, 21-15).
“We never relaxed throughout the match. Our serve was excellent, something which put extra pressure on the opposing team. Everything went according to plan, and we worked well as a team. The atmosphere with the DJs was great, and another thing that helped us a lot was the support we had from the French-speaking members of the crowd,” said Loiseau.
“Having arrived here straight from Paris, it was a real shock for me to come to terms with this heat. But, I knew that I had to adjust to the weather conditions relatively quickly if we were to stand any chance of doing well in this tournament. Our main objective was to finish first in our Pool. Having done that, we had more chances of progressing as we had an easier draw,” said his partner Gauthier-Rat.
The second ticket to the final was claimed by Norway. This was a more evenly matched semi-final compared to the first one and went to the distance. With both sets of players looking really tired after the first two sets, Anders Mol Berntsen and Mathias Berntsen playing for Norway and Oleh Plotnytskyi and Illia Kovalov representing Ukraine, it was a matter of who was going to make the fewer mistakes. The Norwegians had the last laugh, winning 2-1 (21-14, 13-21, 15-11).
“This was a mental victory for us. We are thrilled to make it to the final, as our goal at the start of the event was to win a medal. We have been practicing hard since January, and we could see from that point onwards that we had something real good together,” said Mathias Berntsen.
“We had a bit more power left in the third set and this was enough to give us the win. With our results in Larnaka we have proved that Beach Volleyball in Norway has a future,” added his countryman Anders Berntsen Mol.
You can follow the competition also on social media with the official hashtag #EuroBeachVolleyU20
Click here for more info including entry lists, results, pictures and much more
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