EEVZA vyrų paplūdimio tinklinio čempionato etapas Rokiškyje 2021 07 10 (video+foto) (0)

Šeštadienį Rokiškyje vyko EEVZA vyrų paplūdimio tinklinio čempionato etapo pagrindinės kovos.

After a truly successful opening day at the EEVZA Velykalnis Open in Rokiškis, 16 teams from Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia continued their journey and fight for a spot in the medal matches at the event that opens this year’s EEVZA Beach Volleyball Tour.

It has been a long time since the “Velykalnis arena” witnessed so many good and exciting matches, well before the start of the pandemic, and all the teams looked eager to secure their progression to the final stages of the competition.  

In the late afternoon, the four teams making it to the semis eventually emerged – and they represent four different countries. Unfortunately, the first ever-Italian team to contest an EEVZA Beach Volleyball tournament, Emanuele Monduzzi and Alberto Moro, failed to progress as they lost to Lithuania’s Linas Petravicius/Edvinas Vaskelis in pool play.

Another upset came when Latvia’s Kristaps Punculis/Rudolfs Stankevics lost to home stars Patrikas Stankevicius and Audrius Knasas in the round of 12 – as the local favourites comfortably won 2-0 (21-13, 21-7). The young and eager-for-trophies Lithuanian players did not stop there - in the quarterfinals they beat their fellows Artur Vasiljev/Robert Juchnevic 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) to play Grigoriy Goncharov/Aleksei Arkhipov in the semis. The Russians have come all the way from the qualification and they are now eager to go for the gold medal.

The experience of Olympian Mariusz Prudel did not leave any doubts that the Polish team Prudel/Florczyk would be among the tournament favourites. After leaving behind home team Tomas Stasevicius and Arnas Rumsevicius, the Poles beat Estonia’s Timo Ander Lõhmus/Dimitriy Korotkov in the quarterfinals. In the semis, Prudel and Florczyk will be facing the Latvian team Arnis Relins/Marcis Jirgensons, who upset the local fans as they edged Petravicius/Vaskelis after an intense fight before playing three sets to cruise past U22 European silver medallists Ardis Bedritis/Arturs Rinkevics 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 15-13) in the quarterfinals.

The tournament will continue on Sunday morning, with the semis and medal matches accounting for the climax of this year’s first stop of the EEVZA Beach Volleyball Tour.

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