18/09/2020 21:00
Pre-favourites live up to their status at #EuroBeachVolleyU18
CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championships 2020
Izmir, Turkey, September 18, 2020. The 2020 edition of #EuroBeachVolleyU18 continued on Friday in Izmir at Pamucak Beach, with completion of the pool stage. The teams performing right by the shores of the Aegean Sea contested their last matches in the group phase of the competition and the results determined which tandems would progress to the knockout round starting on Saturday.
Unfortunately, the three teams representing Turkey in the men’s competition lost all of their matches while only one women’s team representing the host country managed to reach the Round of 24.
Among the favourites of the women’s tournament, Elizaveta Gubina and Arina Riazhnova of Russia (pictured above) easily made it through the pool stage. Their last match in the pool against Lithuania’s Melanija Vasiliauskaite/Ariana Rudkovskaja lasted 30 minutes only (21-14, 21-12). The 16-year-old Gubina is the defending European champion after last year she claimed the gold medal in Baden, Austria, along with Mariia Bocharova.
The two Ukrainian teams, as well as Anouk Kressler/Lea Toschini of Switzerland and Italy’s Aurora Mattavelli/Margherita Tega completed a clean sweep of their matches in the pool phase as well, thus proving that they are among the contenders for the medals in Izmir.
“I think we showed a great performance and played well but we have to raise our level day by day if we want to get a medal at this EuroVolleyBeachU18,” said Kressler.
In the men’s competition, the most enjoyable match of the day featured Sweden’s Linus Isaksson/Hampus Ekstrand and Latvia’s Kristians Fokerots/Karlis Abelitis. Although the Swedish team won in straight sets (21-10, 21-13), many long rallies made this match a real treat. “I really enjoyed today’s performance and I am very happy that we won the match and qualified to the next round,” said Ekstrand. Two years ago, Sweden won U18 men’s gold with the recently crowned U20 European champions Jonatan Hellvig and David Åhman.
On Saturday, the competition will resume as early as at 9:00 am with the knockout matches.
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