An all-European final in the Men's Beach Volleyball Tournament
Recap
The European Beach Volleyball family has a great reason for celebrations this Thursday, as two Men's European teams will play for the Olympic Gold. The Beachvolley Vikings (NOR), Anders Mol and Sorum and the reigning World champions, Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy (ROC) will enter the most important match, trying to reach the ultimate goal.
The dream of an all-European Olympic podium is also alive, as Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs (LAT) will face the Qataris Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan in the Bronze medal match on Saturday.
Anders Mol and Christian Sorum disappointed Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs as they claimed a 2-0 win (21-15, 21-16) in the first semifinal match of the day at Shiokaze Park. The Vikings were well in control of the first set, leading from the beginning. The Latvian duo then tried to tie the score in the second set (9-10), but Christian Sorum was impeccable on the attack in these decisive moments and finished with 14 points in the match. 10 monster blocks by Mol made the difference in the match (Edgars Tocs recorded two for the Latvian team). Tocs became the Top Scorer of the match with 17 points to his name, but overall, the Norwegians were also slightly better on the element (24 to 22).
Anders Mol (NOR)“We're getting goosebumps! We are just realising we are Olympic medallists. We have a medal in the Beach Volleyball at the Olympics, and we're freaking Norwegians! But we want to call ourselves “Olympic Gold medallists”! That would be even more special!” Anders Mol (NOR)
Christian Sorum (NOR)“I think Anders just played a normal match (laughs). He played really well today and I was exhausted after the first set. I got really tired, and I told him, ‘Anders, I'm getting really tired now'. And he said, ‘OK, I will step it up, I have more power'.”
Edgars Tocs (LAT)"Еvery time when we were starting to find our game, they pushed or blocked, or defended, or attacked a little bit hard. They played really, really well. We delivered maybe our medium level game, but that was because they didn't allow us - how can you stop the 10 blocks by Mol? We gave it all on the court, we fought for each ball, but we didn't manage to succeed. No worries, we are still in the game, so now we will get ready for the Bronze medal match.”
The reigning World champions from ROC, Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy will also fight for the Golden Olympic Dream this Saturday, after beating in two sets (21-19, 21-17) the No.1 ranked team of Cherif/Ahmed (QAT). The ROC’s representatives showed great mental strength throughout the whole match, scoring the most important points after a tiring point-for-point race. With the result being 19-19 in the first set, Stoyanovskiy, attacking, provoked two dig errors by the Qataris, and the European team opened in their favour. Having won the first part, Krasilnikov and Stoyanovskiy entered even more motivated in the second set. Cherif and Ahmed tried to turn things around several times, but let some errors affect the score. Both sides showed a rather equal level on attack (25 attacks by ROC’s players, to 26 delivered by the Qataris). Stoyanovskiy shined with four blocks, while Cherif, who also became Top Scorer with 18 points, could record only one. Krasilnikov/Stoyanovskiy scored more on their opponents' errors (12 to eight).
Oleg Stoyanovskiy (ROC)"We are in the final of the Olympic Games, and it's been our dream since we started to play Beach Volleyball as a team. Finally, our hard work paid off, we are very happy. We have written a brand-new page in the history of the Russian beach volleyball. It's the first medal ever! Today, we pushed hard on the serve."
On the women’s tournament, the two European teams that made it to the semifinals will meet in the bronze medal match after they were upset by duos from the United States and Australia.
Reigning EuroBeachVolley champions Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre, who are the first Swiss women to make it to the semifinals at the Olympics, couldn’t handle the 2019 World Championship silver medalists April Ross and Alix Klineman of the United States and fell in two sets (12-21, 11-21).
Heidrich and Verge-Depre will now try to become the second Swiss duo to claim bronze at the Olympics, repeating what the country’s men’s team of Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel did in Athens 2004.
Anouk Verge-Depre“Today wasn’t our day. They put a lot of service pressure on and we didn’t know how to respond. Once they had a few points of an advantage, the game got easier for them. They were the favorites in this match but it’s still a disappointment not to have played better. But there’s certainly still the chance of a medal. We’ll have to quickly analyze what happened and then tomorrow we have a new chance.”
Even though they also lost, Graudina and Kravcenoka have no reason to be disappointed about their semifinal performance as they put up a good fight against Australians Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar before eventually losing in straight sets (21-23, 13-21).
The 2019 EuroBeachVolley winners are one win away from securing a medal in the first appearance of a Latvian female team in the Games.
Tina Graudina“It is disappointing to lose in the semifinals, but the tournament is not over yet. We have one more game, so we will go very determined towards the next match. At this moment, we’re a little bit tired, but we will make sure to do everything to be ready for tomorrow.”