PARNU – On the first competition day of the 8th WUC Beach Volleyball Championship there were 32 thrilling matches both in the men’s and women’s tournament.
On Thursday all the pairs play their last group stage match at first. Those who will win the group get themselves a free evening and move directly to the second play-off round, others will play one more match after the draw. Teams who will finish the group stage in fourth place, play their quarterfinals for places 25-32, for second and third place teams there will first be a play-off round game that decides which of them move on to TOP 16.
Yesterday, 13 July, 13 men’s and 14 women’s pairs won their matches. Among the female athletes there were this year’s U20 European Championships bronze medallists Viktoryia Siakretava and Viktoryia Shalayeuskaya. „Of course we are happy that we won today’s matches. The first one against the Chinese pair that we won 21-13, 21-23, 15-13 was really difficult,” they said. „And the orgnisation of the world championship is super. Great thanks to the organisers,” the Belarusian pair added.
In men’s tournament one of the tournament’s favourites Thomas Kunert and Christoph Dressler from Austria also opened their campaign with straight victories. In a first match they defeated Canadian pair Devon Dunn and Dallas Keith 21-14, 21-17 and then the host’s duo Siim Ennemuist/Dmitri Korotkov 21-19, 21-18.
However, they said that the first game was strongly affected by the weather. “It was difficult. Here in Pärnu there is a lot of wind which makes beach volleyball a totally different game, but at least it is getting better and the sun makes a difference,” the Austrians stated.
Despite the weather they played a good game. “We tried to focus on our own way of playing – the aim was to play calm and confident and I think we managed to do this.”
Kunert and Dressler are trying to lead Austria to become the overall winner of the WUC Beach Volleyball 2016. “At the last championships we got the bronze medal so this year we definitely hope to win,” the Austrians confidently added.
Less than month ago Kunert and Dressler were part of the victorious Austrian team which triumphed in the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final in Stavanger, Norway to secure a second quota place for their country to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. After the 2016 WUC Beach Volleyball they keep their fingers crossed for Austrian teams in the Olympic Games and hope that they will win at least one medal.
Estonian team Mart Tiisaar and Kusti Nõlvak also won both of their opening day matches. Japan and Belarus pairs managed to score only 51 points combined against them in four sets. “We had a good start in the tournament. We get used to the wind and everything is getting pretty smooth right now,” Nõlvak commented. „From now on every opponent is going to be much tougher and already tomorrow the opponents are going to be very though. So it is going to be difficult task to win the pool,” Tiisaar added.
(Source: WUC Beach Volleyball OC)
RESULTS
Men’s tournaments results are HERE and group standings are HERE,
Women’s standings are HERE and results HERE.
PHOTOS
Pictures from Day 1 can be found HERE.
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