In the women’s final Russia lost the opening set to Czech Republic (Cebakova/Stara/Siruckova), but managed to bounce back to eventually emerge victorious. “The Czech girls were strong in the final. We are happy that we beat them, it was a tough game. But I have to say Donovaly is a really nice place,” said, Olga Filina of Russia. “We had our chance, but we were tired at the end of the game. The second place is not so bad,” added Ivana Cebákova. Her team played on Sunday four games, while Russia after delivering a perfect performance on Saturday were already qualified to the semifinal. In the bronze medal match the host team Slovakia 1 Poszmikova/Elekova/Slezakova/Tokosova lost to Lithuania Bekis/Frelik/Vlada in two sets. It is worth to mention that Slovakia 1 in the morning survived from a fratricidal battle against Slovakia 4 (Harmanova/Kapralova/Reginova/Jurenkova), which lasted 44 min!

 

Russia and Czech Republic fighting for the gold medal

 

Also in the men’s competition Russia celebrated victory. The road to gold was a very long one for Bobrikov/Bogatov/Mikhalev/Daianov, who played on Sunday as many as four games, and defeating all today’s opponents in two sets (Russia 2, Poland 1, Lithuania and Ukraine). However, the final against Ukraine was their longest game of the day, even if it was closed in two sets, it lasted 30 minutes delivering a great show to the crowd. The local supporters were truly delighted with the final result of the bronze medal match, as Slovakia 2 Pavlicko/Kilian/Ehrenwald/Trubac became a local heroes defeating Lithuania. “We were the youngest team here, with an average age of 18 years. We had nothing to lose, so we have to be satisfied. The third place is a great result for us. We are also glad that we had a possibility to compete with such good teams from other countries. We are not so far away from them and it is a positive news for us. We lost only one game here – a semifinal against Ukraine,” said Bruno Pavličko, junior from club VKP SPU Nitra. His team won also a bronze medal in Donovaly on Friday at the national championships.

 

Team Slovakia 2 with their fans

 

The weather was not as good as on Saturday, with heavy rain at the end of the competition, but organisers, fans and players were delighted with the first Snow Volleyball European Tour in Slovakia. Fans gathered at the venue enjoyed also an exhibition Snow Volleyball game between Slovakia’s sports legend about which you can read here.

 

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