Erciyes, Turkey, January 14, 2018. Challenging conditions today on Mount Erciyes where the first Snow Volleyball European Tour event was played. The women's team from Turkey and the men from Russia were the ones adapting to the weather the best. A total of three medals for Russia, two for Turkey and one for the Czech Republic in this much anticipated season opener.

When players arrived on the mountain today they were welcomed by a fresh pack of snow that had fallen all through the night. On court number 2 where two of the semi-final matches were to be played, the lines that were present when everybody left on Saturday, had disappeared. All through the day a wet form of snow fell from the sky, making conditions hard to cope with for all players.

In the women's tournament it was the Turkish team that coped best with the demanding circumstances. Aleyna Vence (1) had a fourth place from last year to build on, but her partner Bugra Eryildiz (2) was on the snow for the first time. Both having played a lot of Beach Volleyball, this pairing worked on the snowy slopes of Erciyes.

In the semi-final they beat Slovakia's Silvia Poszmikova and Zuzana Snopkova in a hard fought match. The third seeded team of Turkey beat the second seeded in three sets, where the two sets won by Turkey ended with the slimmest possible advantage (5-11, 11-9, 11-9).

In the final, played in the best-of-five format, Ekaterina Syrtseva and Ksenia Khakimzanova of Russia fought hard, resulting in a close 13-11 win in the second set. In the other three sets the Turkish women were dominant and secured the win loudly supported by the home crowd.

"At first our target was to play the semi-final and after that the final. So now we are the champions, we are happy," said Bugra Eryildiz afterwards. Commenting on the demanding conditions of the day she said: "I'm from Cyprus and I haven't seen snow before, it is a Mediterranean island you know. This is very hard for me. Yesterday was like summer, today was very difficult. It's a very beautiful thing, winning here in Erciyes. I am very happy and I am proud of my young partner. It's important for us, because it's in our country."

The bronze medal was won by the 2017 Queens of the Snow Anna Dostalova and Michaela Knoblochová of the Czech Republic. In a tight three-set match they beat the women from Slovakia. "Last year our first tournament was also a bronze medal, so I think we are satisfied. We are not happy, because we lost just one game, but that's Snow Volleyball," they said.

The men's final day was dominated by the Russians. At first the two Russian teams met in the first semi-final, as did the Turkish teams in the other. Taras Myskiv and Ruslan Daianov did not have an easy match against countrymen Valeriy Durnin and Ivan Golovin, but they managed to win in two sets (11-7, 11-9).

On winning that semi-final they were up against Dundar Yildirim and Emirhan Ulutas, who not only were playing in their home country but also had a large crowd cheering them on. Myskiv (2) and Daianov (1) weren't too bothered by all of this and went on to win the final in straight sets (11-7, 11-6, 11-6).

After the medal ceremony Myskiv and Daianov commented on how they coped with the heavy snowfall of the final day. "It was good that we could use these conditions for our game, for our victory. I think we used the wind and also with the snow falling it is difficult to see," said the three time CEV Snow Volleyball Tour stop winner Ruslan Daianov (he won both the events in Uludag and Kronplatz / Plan de Corones last year together with Yury Bogatov).

Taras Myskiv puts a lot of pressure on his opponents with a high skyball serve. "Skyball is a very nice serve in these conditions, because there is a nice wind for it. When an opponent has to look up to the sky, they will have a difficult reception. We dominated after that," Myskiv said smiling.

The bronze medal was also won by Russia. Valeriy Durnin and Ivan Golovin secured a spot on the podium beating another Turkish team, Adem Mert and Ali Berke Sagir, in just eleven minutes (11-5, 11-6).

For all the results, click here.