03/06/2016 14:32
Final round of pool play reflects high level of competition at #EuroBeachVolley
2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Biel / Bienne, Switzerland, June 3, 2016. After three days the pool phase of the men’s competition at the 2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final was eventually completed on Friday afternoon. The last set of matches provided the fans in attendance as well as many more following the Beach Volleyball party of the year from home with lots of close games and quite a number of sensations. If some of the pre-favourites lived up to their status topping the standing of their respective pools, others had to accept major setbacks – something which further cements the statement given by Dutchmen Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen after their third straight victory in Biel / Bienne. “There are many strong teams out there, the level in Europe is getting higher and higher and as a result this tournament is an extremely competitive one,” said the 2013 world champions. And there is definitely more to come with the start of the elimination phase on Friday afternoon / evening…
The 2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final is being extensively covered on the CEV website (click here) as well as on all CEV social media pages; a comprehensive live gallery of the competition is available here while additional information can be found on the organisers’ website www.beacheuro2016.ch.
The last round of men’s pool play accounted for a few major breakthroughs. Matteo and Paolo Ingrosso of Italy seem to have some kind of a special connection with Biel / Bienne as the gold medal winners from the 2015 Masters held on the shores of Lake Biel opened the programme on Friday early morning with a come-from-behind victory over reigning European champions Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins of Latvia (16-21, 21-18, 15-13). This is not the first time the Ingrosso twins have managed such sensational victory – last year they edged Samoilovs and Smedins in front of a partisan crowd in the semis of the Jurmala Masters before going on to claim one of two gold medals they took from the 2015 edition of the European Tour. “This is a fabulous result,” Paolo Ingrosso commented. “However, we just keep our feet on the ground and we take it one match at a time. We like this tournament very much and we won it last year, so let’s see how far this journey will take us.”
As rain continued to pour down in Biel / Bienne, the next sensation followed suit with Poland’s Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz bouncing back from Thursday’s loss to Dries Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle of Belgium to edge third-seeded Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst of Austria, undoubtedly another ‘hot’ contender for the medals that will be at stake later this weekend. 54 minutes and the longest tie-break so far in the men’s tournament were needed to determine the winners of this clash with the Poles emerging victorious after putting on a real fight – 21-18, 16-22, 22-20.
Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich/Gabriel Kissling accounted for yet another sensation when they claimed their second victory in Pool G edging Germany’s Alexander Walkenhorst and Bennet Poniewaz 2-1 (29-27, 21-23, 15-13) in a dramatic 57-minute match to eventually end pool play in first place, a remarkable achievement for a team that got the right to perform at Biel / Bienne only after receiving a wild-card. In this same pool Russia’s Konstantin Semenov and Viacheslav Krasilnikov fought back after dropping two matches in a row; the tenth-seeded team of the championship rose to the occasion cruising to a 21-18, 21-12 win in a make-or-break match with Italy’s Marco Caminati/Enrico Rossi that catapulted them into the elimination round.
Russia’s Beach Volleyball icon Dmitry Barsouk and his young partner Nikita Liamin have been one of the major sensations of the tournament so far. After edging top-seeded Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst on Wednesday, they completed pool play with a 21-16, 21-17 win in their matchup with Austria’s Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl to finish first in Pool A, ahead of the Dutchmen. Nummerdor/Varenhorst are nevertheless back on track: on Friday morning they claimed one of the most anticipated matches of the early session when edging Germany’s Kay Matysik/Jonathan Erdmann 23-21, 22-20.
Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen look determined to chase their first European Championship medal – on Friday morning the Dutchmen posted their third straight victory in Pool B even though they were made work hard for it by France’s Youssef Krou and Edouard Rowlandson (19-21, 21-14, 15-11). Their feat was emulated by Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel who swept three matches in a row in Pool E, with the icing on the cake stemming from their commanding victory (21-17, 21-18) over 2013 European champions Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira of Spain.
Taking about top teams and medal contenders, one of the most anticipated matches of the day featured 2014 European champions Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo and Germany’s rising stars Markus Böckermann/Lars Flüggen. Though Nicolai/Lupo comfortably claimed the opening set 21-14, Böckermann and Flüggen stormed back to win the two following sets (21-19, 15-12). Despite this setback, Nicolai/Lupo finished first in their pool with Böckermann and Flüggen having to be content with third place behind their countrymen Sebastian Fuchs and Stefan Windscheif.
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