19/09/2020 21:00
Teams from five countries still in contention at #EuroBeachVolleyU18
CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championships 2020
Izmir, Turkey, September 19, 2020. On Saturday, after completion of the third competition day at Pamucak Beach, the semi-finalists of this year’s #EuroBeachVolleyU18 emerged – with two teams from Russia and one apiece from Latvia and Ukraine making it among the top four of the men’s tournament. Two teams from Ukraine, plus one from Switzerland and Italy will contest the women’s semis and medal matches on Sunday.
Saturday coincided with the start of the knockout phase, and it was a windy day in Izmir with challenging conditions for the young players competing there. The programme started with the Round of 24 featuring the second and third-placed teams from the pool phase, producing some unexpected results. Quite surprisingly, especially since they have dominated this age group for many years, no Russian teams made it to the women’s semis. The most anticipated duel of the day featured Italy’s Aurora Mattavelli/Margherita Tega and Russia’s Anna Riazhnova/Elizaveta Gubina in the Round of 16. The young Italians showed their physical and mental strength to celebrate a 2-1 (13-21, 21-17, 16-14) victory in 48 minutes. Gubina was a gold medallist last year in Baden, when she played alongside Mariia Bocharova.
In the men’s competition, the ‘match of the day’ featured Slovenia’s Zan Zajc/Rok Bracko and Yevhenii Boiko/Vladyslav Omelchuk of Ukraine. After a real fight that lasted for 46 minutes, the Ukrainians secured their spot in the semis with a 2-1 victory (21-18, 19-21, 15-8).
The 2020 edition of #EuroVolleyBeachU18 will be reaching its climax with the gold medal matches on Sunday, starting at 4 pm and 5 pm local time for women and men, respectively. You can follow live streaming of these matches on EuroVolleyTV.
Click here for further information.
|