Beach volleyball player Brailko / Namike wins last European U22 Championship group game

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The Latvian duo Varvara Brailko / Anete Nāmīke concluded the group tournament with victory in the European U22 Championship taking place in Izmir, Turkey on Friday.

European U20 champions Brailko / Namik, who were placed in Izmir with the fifth number, in the last fight of subgroup E 2-0 (22:20, 21:11) beat the Polish pair Aleksandra Stadnik / Patricja Jundzila, who was seeded with number 12.

This victory ranked Latvian beach volleyball players in the first place in the group.

It has already been reported that on Thursday the Latvians with 1-2 (21:15, 18:21, 10:15) conceded to the Germans Cheno Krista / Anna Lena Grina (21st).

However, the opponents of the first match did not come to the tournament, the other three teams automatically won and were eliminated in the tournament.

The situation in the group is similar for the second Latvian duo Kristīne Briede / Krista Paegle, who were numbered 24 in the tournament. Today they will be awarded a victory against opponents who have not arrived for the competition. This is likely to take second place in subgroup H.

On Thursday, in the first game with the result 2-0 (21: 9, 21:16) English athletes Saskija Freitez Šofele and Lorena Hagins beat, who were sown with the ninth number, but in the afternoon the Latvians had 0-2 (19:21, 13:21) to make concessions to the Czech couple Michael Brzynkov / Kaili Neusheferova, sown with the eighth number.

In the men’s tournament Artūrs Rinkevičs / Rūdolfs Stankevičs (24th) in the first game of subgroup H with 0-2 (18:21, 19:21) acknowledged the superiority of the Czech Tomás Semerād / Patrika Manjaša (9th).

In the second match, Rinkevičs and Stankevičs managed to play the Lithuanian duo Patriks Stankevičius / Mants Donela (8th) with 2-0 (21:16, 21:18).

The second Latvian couple Rinalds Aišpurs / Ardis Daniels Bedrītis, who were placed with the seventh number in the tournament, lost. With 0-2 (13:21, 16:21), they gave in to this year’s European U-20 champions Junatan Helvig and David Uman (23rd).

All Latvian participants, except Stankevičs, were also participants of this year’s European Adult Championship in Jūrmala.

There will be three group tournament games on Thursday and Friday, as well as the first round of playoffs for women. The men’s play-off stage will also start on Saturday, but the semi-finals and finals will take place on Sunday.

In the main tournament, 32 duets are divided into eight subgroups of four each. The winners of the groups will enter the second round of the elimination tournament immediately, but the winners of the second and third places of the groups will start the play-off from the first round.

Also last year, the European U22 Beach Volleyball Championship took place in Antalya, Turkey. For men, Rinkevičs / Stankevičs took the 17th place, but the ninth place was shared by Kristaps Šmits / Mihails Samoilovs. For women Brailko and Namiķe took the shared ninth place, but Briede and Vanessa Grosberg took the shared 25th place.

The Brailko / Namike and Rinkevich / Stankevich duo are coached by Rihards Finsters, while the Briede / Paegle and Aišpurs / Bedrītis pairs are prepared by Aigars Birzulis.

Brailko / Namiķe triumphed in Brno U20 European Championship two weeks ago, but Kristians Fokerots / Kārlis Ābelītis won silver in the U18 Championship in Izmir on Sunday.

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