Eight duets will represent Latvia in the strong competition at the European Beach Volleyball Championship, which will take place in Jūrmala from 16 to 20 September, the organizers of the competition report on Thursday.
The tournament will bring together the best European beach volleyball men’s duos from 17 countries and women’s duos from 13 countries in 32 pairs of men and women.
Latvia will be represented by men’s duo Mārtiņš Pļaviņš / Edgars Točs, Aleksandrs Samoilovs / Jānis Šmēdiņš, Mihails Samoilovs / Aleksandrs Solovejs, Ardis Bedrītis / Arnis Reliņš and women couples Tīna Laura Graudiņa and Anastasija Kravčenoka, Varvara Brailko, Varvara Brailko Ozolina / Luīze Skrastiņa.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the tournament is eligible for one of the strongest tournaments of the season in terms of status in the world.
In the men’s competition, the title will be defended by the world-leading leaders from Norway, Anne Mül and Christian Serum, who won in Moscow. World champions from Russia Vyacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskis, world vice-champions from Germany Julius Tole and Clemens Wickler, world ex-champions Dutch duo Alexander Brouvers / Robert Erzwo / Robert Lewsani and Olympic vice-champions from Italy will want to win Gavira, as well as other strong foreign duos.
The main contenders for the women’s tournament are the Swiss – Tanja Hübler / Nina Becart and Joan Heidrich / Anuka Verge-Depré, the Olympic champion Laura Ludviga from Germany, who will play with Margaret Kozuh, and Sanne Kaizere and Madeleine Mepelinka from the Netherlands Hermanova.
The participants of the tournament will find out their opponents in the official draw, which will take place in Jurmala on August 26 at the tennis center “Lielupe”.
“We are very pleased that all the strongest men’s and women’s teams have confirmed their participation in the European Championship taking place in Jūrmala,” Kaspars Timermanis, a member of the Latvian Volleyball Federation (LVF) board and tournament director, is quoted as saying by the organizers.
“This tournament will probably be the biggest volleyball event of the year in the world, because this year there will be no bigger and more significant tournament in the world. During the season, several of the leading players have healed various injuries, but everyone will be ranked in volleyball, “says Timerman.
Although the Olympic rankings related to the Covid-19 pandemic were frozen on March 16 this year, the European Championship is traditionally one of the tournaments in which teams compete for Olympic ranking points.
Volleyball players will also compete for a total prize pool of 200,000 euros.
The decision to organize the competition in Latvia was made at the meeting of the Board of the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) on July 7, 2020.
In the previous European Championship in Jūrmala in 2017, when Jānis Šmēdiņš and Aleksandrs Samoilovs became vice-champions, Latvia had four pairs in both men’s and women’s competitions.
In August 2017, Šmēdiņš with Samoilov reached the final, where he lost to the Italians Daniel Lupo and Paolo Nikola, but the surprisingly high fifth place was won by Graudiņa and Kravčenoka, as well as Pļaviņš with Harald Regža.
This year, the competitions of the World Tour stage were to take place in Jūrmala, but this tournament was postponed to the next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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