The EuroBeachVolley 2024 men’s podium (Photo credits: cev.eu)
London 2012 bronze medallist and European Games 2015 champion Plavins joined forces with 2022 U19 world champion, 2022 U18 European champion and 2024 U20 European champion Fokerots for EuroBeachVolley in the Netherlands. After initially being on the reserve list, the duo entered the main draw as the 25th seed and made an incredible run of seven wins in seven matches to the top of the podium. It was Latvia’s second continental title in men’s beach volleyball, after Aleksandrs Samoilovs & Janis Smedins won EuroBeachVolley in 2015.
In their semifinal, Plavins, himself a 2005 U21 world champion and two-time age-category European champion in his youth years, and Fokerots achieved a narrow 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) win over fourth-seeded Immers & Van de Velde. In the final, the Latvians came back from a set down to celebrate a 2-1 (17-21, 22-20, 15-5) victory over third-seeded Ehlers & Wickler.
The Paris 2024 silver medallists from Germany earned the country’s first men’s EuroBeachVolley medal (the silver) in 12 years. They reached the semifinals without dropping a set in five matches played. In the battle for a spot in the final, Ehlers & Wickler mounted a 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 16-14) comeback against seventh-seeded Samuele Cottafava & Paolo Nicolai of Italy.
Spectacular save by Matthew Immers (Photo credits: cev.eu)
Immers & Van de Velde also reached the semifinals on a five-game winning streak. After losing to Plavins & Fokerots, the Dutch team bounced back with a hard-fought 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 16-14) win over Cottafava & Nicolai to delight the home crowd with the bronze.
Men’s results and standings
The EuroBeachVolley 2024 women’s podium (Photo credits: cev.eu)
In the women’s competition, 23-year-old Muller and 33-year-old Tillmann cruised to their first European title, dropping only a set along the way to the gold. The German duo won seven matches in a row and suffered a small setback only in their 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 15-13) quarterfinal victory over Latvia’s Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova. In the semifinals, fifth-seeded Muller & Tillmann mastered a 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) win over seventh-seeded Bobner & Verge-Depre, before producing a 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) sweep of the final against fourth-seeded Gottardi & Menegatti, picking up Germany’s ninth continental crown in women’s beach volleyball, but first since 2017.
In a nail-biting semifinal, 21-year-old Paris Olympian Gottardi and 34-year-old four-time Olympian Menegatti overcame Lithuania’s Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte to deliver an epic 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 20-18) victory and secure their country’s first European medal (a silver) since 2011, when Menegatti had snatched the title in partnership with Greta Cicolari.
In the third-place match, Bobner & Verge-Depre defeated the ninth-seeded duo from Lithuania in straight sets, 2-0 (22-20, 21-14), to claim the bronze and put Switzerland on the podium for the fifth consecutive time.
Women’s results and standings
32 women’s and 32 men’s duos from 18 different countries took part in the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championships in the Hague, Arnhem and Apeldoorn.
Source link : https://www.fivb.com/latvias-plavins-fokerots-and-germanys-muller-tillmann-triumph-as-european-champions/
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Publish date : 2024-08-23 07:00:00
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