Ljubljana, Slovenia, December 2, 2018. The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 1-Star Satellite in Ljubljana ended on Sunday with Greece’s Panagiota Karagkouni and Vasiliki Arvaniti claiming the women’s title, while men’s gold went to Belarus, courtesy of top-seeded Aliaksandr Dziadkou and Pavel Piatrushka.
Vasiliki Arvaniti, a two-time European champion and three-time Olympian, had an amazing comeback to the international stage. Together with her teammate Panagiota Karagkouni, she played in the final against two young rising stars from Lithuania, Vytene Vitkauskaite and Urte Andriukaityte. The far more experienced Greek players stormed to a 2-0 victory (21-18, 21-15) to celebrate their victory with much joy. After being absent from the Beach Volleyball scene for two years and having a baby only in June, Arvaniti came back and immediately won. “I wanted to feel this emotion again, to play and to enjoy the game. I came here hungry to play, because I have been away from competition for a long time. I really enjoyed a lot to play here. We won the gold medal and this is a perfect way to start again,” said the 33-year old Arvaniti, whose ultimate goal is to play once again at the Olympics.
A family picture at the end of the indoor competition held in the Slovenian capital.
After losing to Karagkouni/Arvaniti in the semis, the Ukrainian team Diana Lunina/Maryna Samoday were victorious in the match for the third place, where they faced 16-year old Latvians Varvara Brailko and Anete Namike. “I am excited that we won the third place. I think we could really do better, especially in the match against the Greek team. I am quite sure they will win the tournament in the end, because they are a very experienced team. I am glad we got the opportunity to play against them twice, so we could gather more experience, focusing on our future games. I really liked this tournament, and thank God, we finished on the podium,” said Maryna Samoday, who was obviously happy about their final performance in the Slovenian capital.
In the men’s competition, the bronze medal went to Australia, as Paul Burnett and Maximilian Guehrer won against Robin Sowa and Eric Stadie form Germany. Burnett and Guehrer bounced back from the semi-final loss to Sekerci/Urlu and won 2-1 against the Germans. “We did come a long way and it was a big risk coming all this way to play one tournament. It took a lot of money, time and dedication, so we are extremely happy to bounce back from the disappointing loss in the semi-final and play some of our best Beach Volleyball in those last two sets to get a win. We could not be any happier,” said Burnett.
Aliaksandr Dziadkou and Pavel Piatrushka of Belarus were the eventual winners of the men’s tournament.
Belarus’s Aliaksandr Dziadkou and Pavel Piatrushka proved they deserved the top-seeded position, as they won against Selcuk Sekerci and Safa Urlu from Turkey 21-19, 21-16. Dziadkou and Piatrushka only lost one match throughout the whole tournament in pool play but quickly regrouped and made it all the way to the first place on the podium. “It was very hard for us, because we lost our first match and then we had to play three matches on the second day and we were very tired. Fortunately, we won today and we are happy,” said a delighted Dziadkou after the final match.
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