Jānis Šmēdiņš (from left) and Aleksandrs Samoilovs.
Photo: Juris Kalnins
Gints Narogs, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”
Latvia’s most experienced beach volleyball duo Aleksandrs Samoilovs / Jānis Šmēdiņš will not take part in the Tokyo Olympic Games.
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The last Olympic tickets to Tokyo were distributed by Europeans last week at the Continental Cup final in the Dutch city of The Hague. Samoilov / Šmēdiņš, playing in a team with Artūrs Rinkevičs / Ardis Bedrītis, did not have an easy task, because only the winners of the competition were at the coveted Olympic quota.
In the eighth final, ours defeated the Belarusians 2-1, in the quarterfinals they defeated Turkey 2-0, but in the semi-finals they stopped against the Netherlands – 0-2. Samoilov / Šmēdiņš met with Christian Warenhorst and Ruben Pening, losing 1: 2 in a very fierce battle in rainy weather (21:18, 22:24, 15:17).
In the third set, ours did not protect the three-point advantage… Samoilovs competed for his fourth Olympic Games, Šmēdiņš, who won bronze in the duet with Mārtiņš Pļaviņš in London in 2012, for the third. This failure is even more painful, because Samoilov / Šmēdiņš was the first in the Olympic qualification rank.
A day later, in the final, the Dutch gave up 1-2 to Switzerland, which will send one duo to Japan, but Latvia will be represented in the Olympics by Mārtiņš Pļaviņš / Edgars Točs and Tīna Graudiņa / Anastasija Kravčenoka.
With the last throw
Last week, other Latvian athletes received pleasant news in the meantime – thanks to the place on the Tokyo road signs, judge Yevgeny Borodavko and modern pentathlete athlete Pavels Schwecov were at the rank. For 34-year-old Borodavko, this will be the fourth game, the first for Schwecov. Javelin thrower Anete Kociņa was also able to rejoice, who in the last athletics championship, which took place in Jelgava, sent the gear 63.70 meters away in her last throw.
It was 30 centimeters short of the Olympic standard, but this result gave 1147 World Athletics ranking points and a 100-point bonus for the fact that the result was achieved in the Latvian championship. 1247 points should be enough for Kociņa to enter the top 30 and go to Tokyo.
Madara Palameika and Roland Štrobinder, who remained in the second place in Jelgava, should also hope for the ranking. Madara’s result was 60.09 meters, but Strobinder’s 80.86 meters, winning the men’s competition Gatis Čakšs (81.96), for whom the Olympic norm has been met.
Currently, 30 Latvian athletes have won Tokyo tokens in 14 sports, but it is known that Laura Ikauniece will not start due to injury.
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