In the voting of volleyball specialists, journalists and fans in five nominations, the winners of the 2020 awards in volleyball and beach volleyball were determined, but four more awards were found in the evaluation of volleyball professionals.
Fans could vote for the excellents of 2020 in five categories on the LVF website for 17 days. During this time, the best were also determined by journalists and the LVF board. The highest value was given to the fan vote (40% of the result), while the contribution of journalists and volleyball professionals was assessed with 30% of the final result.
Atvars Ozoliņš won the Volleyball Player of the Year award, who overtook his teammates in the Latvian national team – Herman Egleskalns, Ingars Ivanovs, Denis Petrovs and Toms Švans. Both fans and journalists put Ozolins in the first place, but the federation preferred Petrov, a long-time national teammate.
At the beginning of September, Ozoliņš, together with other players of the Latvian men’s volleyball team, won a historic ticket to the final tournament of the 2021 European Championship as part of the Latvian national team. The 22-year-old volleyball player was the most successful player of the Latvian national team in the qualification tournament in Cyprus and currently represents the “Credit24” championship club “Parnu” led by the national team head coach Avo Kēl.
Marta Kamēlija Levinska became the volleyball player of the year in the competition of Elvita Dolotova, Kristīne Kramēna, Elza Reknere and Liene Šimkuse. Dolotova was ahead of her in the fan vote, but that was not enough to win her overall.
19-year-old Levinska is the leader of the Latvian women’s volleyball team’s model attack in recent years. In the ranks of the “Riga Volleyball School” / “University of Latvia” (RVS / LU) team, he became the Latvian Cup winner, the Baltic League champion and the most valuable player of the league last season, but won the second place in the unfinished Latvian championship together with the team in the main tournament. He is currently studying and playing volleyball at Arizona State University in the United States.
The title of the volleyball team of the year in the extramural fight with three men’s clubs – “Daugavpils University” / “Ezerzeme”, Jēkabpils “Lūši” and “RTU Border Guard” / “Jūrmala” – was won by RVS / LU trained by Andrejs Odinokovs and Pāvels Selivanovs. Fans and federation officials voted for the Riga club, while journalists named the “Lynx” unit the best.
Last season, the RVS / LU team won the Latvian Cup, won the Baltic League and re-entered the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) Challenge Cup.
The beach volleyball team of the year has become the duo Brailko / Namiķe, which overtook such pairs as Kristians Fokerots / Kārlis Ābelītis, Anastasija Kravčenoka / Tīna Laura Graudiņa, Mārtiņš Pļaviņš / Edgars Točs and Aleksandrs Samoilovs / Jānis Šmēds. Brailko / Namiķe won the evaluation of fans and volleyball specialists, but the photo finish in the evaluation of journalists determined that Samoilovs with Šmēdiņš were slightly better.
Brailko and Namik won gold medals at the European U-20 Championships in Brno, shared fifth place at the European U-22 Championships in Izmir, and finished fourth in the World Tour one-star tournament in Ljubljana.
Brailko was also the title of the rising star of the year, for which Fokerots and Renārs Pauls Jansons, a member of the Latvian volleyball team, were also nominated. In all three judgments, despite the fierce competition, Brailko was named the best.
The beach volleyball player showed an excellent performance in defense this year.
According to LVF experts, Iļja Miņins became the annual volleyball judge, and Evita Feldentāle became the volleyball secretary of the year, while judge Jānis Ivanovs and game secretary Diāna Veikšāne won the laurels in beach volleyball.
It is customary that the winners of the annual volleyball awards are presented in the final of the Latvian Cup at the end of the year. This year, due to the virus, the Latvian Cup final has been postponed to the end of January. However, if it is not possible to organize the Latvian Cup final at the end of January, where the prizes will be presented, then LVF promises to present the prizes to the winners in a more unconventional way according to the current regulations related to restrictions.
In 2019, RVS player Levinsky and Nizhny Novgorod ASK athlete Petrov became the volleyball players of the year, while Kravchenok and Toch won the titles in beach volleyball.
Uģis Krastiņš became the coach of the year in classic volleyball, and Genadijs Samoilovs in beach volleyball.
In the category of judges, Ilgvars Ozoliņš was named the judge of the year in classic volleyball, but in beach volleyball – Egīls Tišanovs.
Zigurds Adamovičs from the Jēkabpils “Lūšu” unit, which was recognized as the best team of the year, was awarded the rising star of the year. Kravčenoka and Graudiņš won the best team in beach volleyball.
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