04/06/2016 21:52
Russia’s ‘rain men’ edge reigning European champs on night of close quarterfinal matches
2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Biel / Bienne, Switzerland, June 4, 2016. Biel / Bienne will witness the crowning of ‘new’ European champions on Sunday after 2015 gold medal winners Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins of Latvia lost in the quarter-finals to Konstantin Semenov and Viacheslav Krasilnikov of Russia. On Sunday the winners of the 2014 FIVB Moscow Grand Slam will be chasing Russia’s first European Championship medal since Dmitry Barsouk and Igor Kolodinsky won bronze eight years ago in Hamburg, Germany. Semenov/Krasilnikov will play Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel for a spot in the gold medal match. The other semi-finalists are Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo and Dutchmen Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, i.e. another two of Europe’s world-class teams.
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.
Semenov and Krasilnikov are the ‘rain men’
Semenov/Krasilnikov have gone through a fairly unusual journey so far while competing on the shores of Lake Biel. Their tournament started with two straight setbacks in pool play and they eventually made it to the elimination round only after claiming their last match in the group stage with Italy’s Marco Caminati and Enrico Rossi. However, after that they have had quite some luck – as two withdrawals by teams from France and Poland paved their way to the quarterfinals where they would take on reigning European champions Samoilovs and Smedins.
The match was played under challenging weather conditions – so much rain had not poured down since the start of the tournament in Biel / Bienne but the Russian players did not seem too bothered by this. Semenov’s blocking, in particular, worked just fine on the way to a 21-17 set win before Samoilovs/Smedins came back strong in the second frame (21-19). Semenov and Krasilnikov rose to the occasion in the tie-break that followed (15-12) to secure their first ever qualification for a semi-final of the European Championship.
“We started out pretty well but after that they scored five points in a row and as a result they got a real boost of confidence,” Janis Smedins said after this loss. “It was a tough match where we exchanged the lead back and forth many times. However, in the end luck was on their side. As you all know, this year we primarily focus on the Olympics, but this tournament was important too. It has been a useful experience, we have had a lot of close and long matches and we have seen we still have quite some work to do and identified what we need to improve on ahead of Rio,” he continued.
“We knew that they can cope with these conditions much better than we do,” partner Aleksandrs Samoilovs added.
Italian twins fail to capitalise on four match balls, Poles through to semis
Paolo and Matteo Ingrosso of Italy have a special connection with Biel / Bienne as they won last year’s Masters tournament in the Swiss city and they obviously were the favourites of the local crowd in their matchup with 2013 European bronze medallists Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland. However, as many as four match balls they had in the tie-break were not enough for the Italians to secure a spot among the top four teams of the 2016 #EuroBeachVolley.
The Italian twins came from behind in the third and decisive set and asked for a medical time-out at 9-7 for their opponents. After the break, the Ingrosso delighted a partisan crowd with their spectacular actions and eventually completed their comeback at 12-all. However, they dissipated as many as four chances to finish it all off in their favour before the Polish team cashed their second match ball to seal a 2-1 win (21-19, 19-21, 20-18).
“I think it was a very good match, with very few mistakes, and am sure that the audience enjoyed it,” Mariusz Prudel said. “Many thanks to the fans for all of their cheering. We are in good shape and our goal is to make it to the ‘big final’ and to improve on the bronze medal we won in 2013.”
Italians and Dutchmen secured remaining semi-final spots
2014 European champions Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo of Italy remain in contention for their second continental crown after claiming an extremely close match with Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira (23-21, 21-23, 15-12). Actually the Italians could have cashed their victory in the second set already but could not capitalise on a match ball – this did nevertheless not affect the quality of their performance in the tie-break where they delighted the Swiss crowd with some spectacular actions to secure their place in the semis.
2013 world champions Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen made amends for the setback they suffered in last year’s bronze medal match in Klagenfurt edging top-seeded countrymen Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst 18-21, 21-19, 15-12 and stay in the race for their first ever European Championship medal.
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