Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, March 19, 2017. Czech Republic’s Anna Dostalova/Michaela Knoblochova, current leaders in the CEV Snow Volleyball Ranking and top-seeded team at the Kranjska Gora stop of the 2017 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour, finally claimed their first gold in the circuit. They had two silver and one bronze medals so far, but on the Slovenian snow, Dostalova/Knoblochova managed to reach the highest step on the podium.

In Sunday’s final match in the Julian Alps, the Czech team faced their neighbours and friends from Slovakia, second-seeded Silvia Poszmikova/Eva Elekova. The Slovaks were hoping to take revenge for losing to Dostalova/Knoblochova at the Czech stop of the Tour three weeks ago, but it was not meant to be. Enjoying some quite enthusiastic support from the fans, Anna and Michaela dominated the game. Silvia and Eva put up a fight in the first set, but eventually suffered a shutout - 3-0 (16-14, 11-7, 11-8) in favour of the Czech duo.

“We feel perfect! Our time is now! Perfect atmosphere, perfect fans (we do not know them, but they have been cheering for us), and we felt well on the court. The first set was hard, but we won! So now we have a problem – we have to buy bus tickets to go home,” said the Czech winners after the last point jokingly referring to the fact that, for their trip to Slovenia, they car-pooled with Silvia Poszmikova, who lives in Prague.

The two teams cruised to the final match unbeaten taking the shortest way through the winners’ bracket. In the semi-finals earlier on Sunday, Dostalova/Knoblochova mastered a 2-0 (11-6, 11-5) win against fourth-seeded Marta Swiechowska/Magdalena Zochowska from Poland, while Poszmikova/Elekova stamped a 2-1 (11-9, 9-11, 11-8) victory over fifth-seeded Tiana Nicolaus/Anika Wucherer from Germany.

Swiechowska/Zochowska claimed the bronze medals after beating Nicolaus/Wucherer by 2-0 (11-5, 12-10) in the third place game.

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