I couldn’t be more proud of these players / article

Latvian beach volleyball players Tīna Graudiņa and Anastasija Kravčenoka on Friday lost the battle for Olympic bronze. After the game, their coach Gustavo Roča expressed that he is proud of the Latvian success in the Olympics. –

“I want the whole of Latvia to be proud of these great athletes,” said Rocha.

“They have the heart, the willpower, and they put in the hard work,” the coach described the recipe for success.

As a coach at the previous Olympics, Rocha had worked with a US duo, so he was able to share his experience before the Graudiņa / Kravčenoka Medal. He also said that the Latvians knew how to stick to the game plan and did an excellent job on the field. “They did everything I asked. I couldn’t be more proud of these two players, “he said.

When a team fails to play, tension between players often increases on the beach volleyball court. Roča did not hide that it is not easy for players who have reached such a big stage at such an early age, but for the most part Graudiņa and Kravčenoka coped well with emotions. “The way they stayed together, behaved and played, showed that they coped well with the pressure,” Rocha explained. He did not hide that there is still room for growth.

The coach also found that he likes to focus on the positive, because the players themselves already know the negative.

Before the Olympic Games, Graudiņa and Kravčenoka faced several difficulties. Tīna is studying in the USA, so it was not possible to train together in Latvia. Graudiņa had taken an academic year in 2020 to better prepare for the Olympics, but it was postponed. She did not have a second such opportunity, so this year she had to combine both studies and studies. Graudiņa and Kravčenoka spent part of the training process together in Los Angeles.

The coach admitted that, of course, there are reasons not to play together in the future and not to prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics in such a team, but the success speaks for itself. “Four tournaments, three semi-finals. If I could drop the microphone, I would, ”Roča laughed.

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