Five Slovenian teams in the knockout stage of #EuroBeachVolleyU18
News
Local Beach Volleyball players pleased the home fans in Ljubljana by claiming six wins to make sure that as many as five home teams representing Slovenia will return to the court on Saturday morning. Overall, 15 teams did not lose a single match in the pool stage of the #EuroBeachVolleyU18 event in Slovenia’s capital.
Denmark’s Christian Lundby Andersen and Marius Stenmann Hansen, who made it through the qualifications on Wednesday, kept the momentum going and finished the pool phase with three straight 2-0 wins, as did Ukraine’s Yevhenii Boiko/Vladyslav Omelchuk, and Latvia’s Kristians Fokerots/Gustavs Auzins.
Russia’s Vladislav Panchenko and Ivan Chuprinov, Estonia’s Tristan Täht and Mati Juus, Austria’s Timo Hammarberg and Tim Berger, Czechs Daniel Fabikovic and Richard Struska, and Belgium’s Kyan Vercauteren and Jelle De Hert also wait for their opponents in Round 2 of the competition. The Belgians were obviously happy with claiming the top spot in Pool H with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) win over Turkey’s Sacit Kurt and Ahmet Can Tur.
“It was not an easy win, we had to work for it and I think we did quite well. We are definitely satisfied with being the best in our pool,” commented Vercauteren.
Jelle De Hert (BEL)“We deserved this first place. Before the tournament, I said to my teammate that I did not want to be in the same pool as France, but we managed to overcome them in the first match. Although we lost the first set 21-8 and we thought that it was all over, we regrouped and started playing and believing in our chances. In the end, we showed who Belgium is and for the remainder of the competition we need to give our best in every match.”
Home heroes Rok Bračko and Luka Marovt were much happier after the second day with two wins under their belts. Their compatriots Miha Okorn and Nejc Najdič will also join them in the next stage of the event.
Women’s teams played only one match each, but many of the encounters were decisive to determine who would eventually proceed to the next stage of the competition. All the pre-favourites remain in contention - as do the home teams too, who claimed one victory each, to secure their spot in the matches coming up on Saturday.