PARNU – The second competition day in the 8th WUC Beach Volleyball Championships determined those 16 teams in both genders who are going to continue to compete for the medals. Among them there are four German teams and five countries are represented with three pairs.
„This year we have a lot of young players. I think it is not like last time when we came to win. Our main goal is to get a lot of experience and prepare for junior tournaments,” said Sydney Olympic bronze medallist and two time European champion, Jörg Ahmann who is working as coach in Pärnu. „These World University Championships are a wonderful opportunity for young players to feel the competition pressure. Pärnu is a superb place for this kind of tournament – here is a beutiful beach and a little bit of wind – this is what beach volleyball is about,” he added.
But so far everything shows that the German pairs are aming for another glory. Two years ago in Portugal they won gold and silver medal at 7th WUC Beach Volleyball, now there is two pairs in TOP16 in both genders.
„We are happy to win and that we are still in play in the tournament. Especially beacuse it is very windy and so we have to serve very well and play a bit different than in Germany where there is not such a strong wind. Here we have to keep our eyes on the wind all the time and calculate the trajectory of the ball,” said Weiland/Ittlinger who defeated Anett Hollas and Juudit Kure-Pohhomov in Round 1.
Besides great success from Germany there are three teams from Poland. One of them is
The Polish duo Michal Bryl and Kacper Kujawiak. In the last group stage game they defeated France pair Romain Di Giantommaso and Maxime Thiercy with 2-0 (22-20, 23-21).
As the result reflects, their recent match was highly intense. „It was a tough game. The French team was a strong opponent – we have played against them for about 3-4 times in U21,” the Polish players stated. Such a great start has given Bryl and Kujawiak much confidence. „We want to keep going and hope to get a medal,” said Kujawiak. „We now only think about winning the next match”, added Bryl.
Gathering three victories in the group stage means that they didn’t have to play in Round 1 on yesterday’s evening and they move directly to Round 2. „There are a lot of good teams here, we know the Austrians and our friends from Poland,” pointed Polish teammates.
Team USA also has three pairs fighting for medals. After their Round 1 victory, Branden Clemens and Brendan Duff stated that they are going for the top spots in the Championship. „We want to play as best as we can and ideally our best volleyball takes us to the podium,” they said.
(Source: WUC Beach Volleyball OC)
LIVESTREAMING
Today there will be live-feed from three courts. Games will be broadcasted by Baltic Broadcasting and seen in the Estonian news portal Delfi. The link to the matches is here.
RESULTS
Men’s tournaments results are HERE and group standings are HERE.
Women’s standings are HERE and results HERE.
PHOTOS
Pictures from competition Day 2 can be found HERE.
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