11/03/2018 17:53
Teams from Germany and Turkey triumph in Kranjska Gora
2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour
Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, March 11, 2018. As many as 10 nations had the privilege to battle for the podium at the fifth stop of the 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour in Kranjska Gora and as many as six countries claimed medals in the end. Teams from Turkey, Austria and Slovakia occupied the women’s podium with Germany, Russia and Poland taking gold, silver and bronze from the men’s tournament.
Turkey’s reigning national champions Aleyna Vence/Bugra Eryildiz had travelled to Kranjska Gora vying for their third win on the 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour following up on the gold medals they had secured on home snow in Erciyes and Uludag. They achieved their goal after an amazing final match against Austria’s national champions Elisabeth Klopf/Viktoria Mair, which finished 2-0 (11-9, 11-7) in 20 minutes as many fans witnessed the ‘grand finale’ of the tournament, thus accounting for a truly great atmosphere.
Bugra Eryildiz was obviously over the moon: “We are very happy to claim a third gold medal this season. We are also happy to be a part of this tournament; we like Slovenia a lot. We are now looking forward to competing at the 2018 CEV European Championship in Austria and we hope for another medal there as well.”
A very close bronze medal match saw Slovakia’s Silvia Poszmikova/Romana Jurenkova edge the reigning ‘Queens of the Snow’, Michaela Knoblochova/Anna Dostalova of the Czech Republic 2-1 (10-12, 14-12, 11-9) in a match lasting as long as 33 minutes.
The men’s gold medal match featured Paul Becker/Jonas Schröder from Germany and Ruslan Bykanov/Maksim Hudyakov from Russia. It was a repeat of their early morning game from the fourth round when the Russian team sent the Germans to the losers’ bracket where Becker and Schröder fought their way back by winning over Austria’s Alexander Huber/Martin Streitfellner and Poland’s Michal Matyja/Piotr Janiak to advance to the final.
The payback time for team Becker/Schröder came in the finals when they beat Bykanov and Hudyakov 2-0 (17-15, 12-10) in a nerve-wracking final match. “We have not been practicing so much recently and we have not been playing on the snow at all since our national championship. I think this was our tenth match. We are obviously excited to win in Kranjska Gora. We lost against the Russians earlier in the tournament today. We knew they are a strong team, and we changed some things for the final. It was a close match, but it worked out in the end,” Schröder said.
The bronze medal match was a quick victory for the 2017 “King of the Snow” Michal Matyja and his teammate Piotr Janiak from Poland over 14-seeded Izsák Soós/Viktor Erik Bán from Hungary (2-0; 11-7, 11-7) in 16 minutes only.
Kronplatz / Plan de Corones in Italy will host the sixth and final stop of the 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour next weekend, thus providing players with their last opportunity to play on the snow before the first-ever CEV Snow Volleyball European Championships taking place from March 23 to 25 in Wagrain-Kleinarl and Flachau, Austria.
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