Kristīne Briede / Krista Paegle and Artūrs Rinkevičs / Rūdolfs Stankevičs were among the Latvian beach volleyball players on Thursday to win the European U-22 Championship in Izmir, Turkey.
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Briede / Paegle, who were placed in the tournament with the 24th number, in the first game of the H subgroup with the result 2-0 (21: 9, 21:16) beat the English athletes Saskie Freitez Chofel / Lorena Hagins, who were sown with the ninth number.
In the afternoon, the Latvians had to make concessions with 0-2 (19:21, 13:21) to the Czech couple Mihaela Bržīnkova / Kailija Neušaeferova, who were sown with the eighth number.
Meanwhile, European U-20 champion Varvara Brailko / Anete Namiķe, who was placed with the fifth number, in the first fight of subgroup E with 1-2 (21:15, 18:21, 10:15) gave way to the Germans Cheno Krista / Anna Lena Green (21. ).
The opponents of the first match did not come to the tournament, thus the Latvians had an automatic victory and a place in the elimination tournament.
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. On Saturday, the “play-off” stage will also start for men, but on Sunday there will be semi-finals and finals.
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 U-22 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 U-20 European Championship two weeks ago, but Kristians Fokerots / Kārlis Ābelītis won silver in the U-18 championship in Izmir on Sunday.
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