25/03/2018 16:36
Russian ‘Kings of the Snow’ crowned first-ever #EuroSnowVolley champions
2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship
Wagrain-Kleinarl, Austria, March 25, 2018. The recently crowned 2018 ‘Kings of the Snow’, Russia’s Ruslan Daianov and Taras Myskiv, added on Sunday another distinction to their resume – as they became the first-ever European Snow Volleyball champions at the real birthplace of this sport, the Austrian ski resort of Wagrain-Kleinarl. Daianov and Myskiv achieved this remarkable feat after dropping only one set in the six matches they contested in the Austrian Alps, crowning their quest for gold with a 3-0 victory (14-12, 17-15, 11-9) in the gold medal match with Germany’s Jonas Schröder and Paul Becker. Lithuania had a fabulous day in Wagrain since Arnas Rumsevicius and Lukas Kazdailis added men’s bronze to the gold medal won by Ieva Dumbauskaite and Monika Povilaityte in the women’s competition.
Daianov and Myskiv were the dominant force on this year’s European Tour with three gold medals and one silver to their name and they had travelled to Austria with the intention to add the continental crown to their resume. They eventually achieved their goal on Sunday following a dominant display in the semi-final with Kazdailis/Rumsevicius (11-6, 11-9) before they took the final showdown against the Germans as well.
A record-breaking crowd for a Snow Volleyball event witnessed the gold medal match as Russia and Germany fought for the historic continental crown. Germany failed to capitalise on four set balls in the opening set before Daianov/Myskiv pulled out a 14-12 victory; the second set was even more dramatic, with both sides wasting many opportunities to seal a win before Daianov and Myskiv emerged victorious once again at 17-15. The third set followed pretty much the same plot, but this time Daianov and Myskiv did not need to play any extra time as they sealed their 3-0 victory at 11-9.
“It feels like a dream and of course we are very happy with this European title,” Daianov and Myskiv said. They will be parting ways soon since they will play with different partners for their 2018 Beach Volleyball campaign but they hope to come back together for the 2019 snow season. As for Daianov, Volleyball seems to be in the genes of the family since his father Rushan achieved success in Beach Volleyball back in the 90s and sister Liudmila finished fourth at the #EuroSnowVolley in Wagrain.
Paul Becker was happy with silver but at the same time, he could not hide his disappointment. “It was a very close match as you can see from the score and we lost each set by two points only, so this speaks for itself. However, we made a couple of wrong decisions in each set and when playing at this level, you end up paying a high price for this. We would have loved to play for longer for this great audience, maybe another couple of sets, but it was not to be. We are nevertheless happy with what we achieved and would like to congratulate the Russian team on a very well deserved gold medal.” Partner Jonas Schröder echoed his words: “I could not imagine that it would be such a great experience, and I am hoping to come back again next year,” said the gold medal winner from this year’s European Tour stop in Kranjska Gora and German Snow Volleyball national champion.
March 25, 2018 will go down in history for Lithuania’s Volleyball family as next to the gold medal won by Dumbauskaite and Povilaityte in the women’s competition, the Baltic country added men’s bronze to their tally, courtesy of Lukas Kazdailis and Arnas Rumsevicius. They regrouped following a disappointing semi-final against Daianov/Myskiv to seal a 3-2 victory (8-11, 11-6, 11-13, 11-6, 11-3) in the bronze medal match with Russia’s Yury Bogatov and Pavel Rakusov. “We are obviously happy with the result, even though I do not know what happened to us in the semi,” said Rumsevicius. “We just felt like empty and played without any energy. We are professional Beach Volleyball players and this was only our second tournament on snow following the national championship back in January but we liked it very much. We won’t have too much of a break after this tournament because we go back home and contest the semis of our Volleyball national league, where we play for different teams and will be standing on opposite sides of the net. After that, we will switch back to Beach Volleyball; we played some FIVB events in Florida and Iran earlier this year and the one stop in China is next on our agenda.”
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