On December 19, Brailko / Namik met with the Swiss team Menja Bentele / Leon Kernen in the fight for bronze medals. This time they had to acknowledge the superiority of their opponents by conceding with 1: 2 (11:21; 21:18; 11:15) and winning the 4th place in the World Championship.
As previously reported, two other Latvian couples – Beāte Liepājniece / Anija Ozoliņa and Olivers Bulgačs / Dāvis Teteris – finished the race with 17th place, leaving Phuket with 80 world ranking points.
Latvian boys duo Oliver Bulgačs / Dāvis Teteris beat Julian Masari and Pavlo Portiljo of Paraguay 2-1 (21:17, 23:25, 15: 6) and Americans 2-0 (25:23, 21:16) Carson Barnes and Eiden Kiefer, but in the last game with 0-2 (14:21, 14:21) gave way to Brazilians Mateus de Paul and Gabriel Zuliani.
In the first round of the playoffs, the Latvians 0-2 (15:21, 21:23) conceded the victory of the Swiss Leo Dillier and Tibo Kolomam, ranking 17th and leaving Phuket with 80 world ranking points.
The women’s team Liepājniece / Ozoliņa went to the WC under the guidance of coach Tomas Šmēdiņš, assisting the manager Ainārs Soks. As previously reported, Namiķe and Brailko do not have their own coach, so they are assisted by both Toms Šmēdiņš and Atvars Vilde, who are the coach of the boys’ team Bulgačs / Teteris.
“If I could come to Thailand faster five days a day, I think it would start better,” says Toms Šmēdiņš, the head coach of the Latvian national team in this competition. The lottery also determined that the girls from Liepāja and Ozoliņš UV-19 won the Russian Olga Gavrilov and Alina Salmanov qualifiers in the first game of the U-19 championship, who later won the second place in the tournament. Varvara and Anete, on the other hand, did not play very well in the group tournament, but they defeated the strong Brazilian duo in the playoffs and were able to win the lost match with the Italians with the help of success. ”
“There was a good draw in the U-21 tournament, and Beate and Ania could also win the group. However, for the girls it was their first experience in international tournaments and they had their mistakes. In the first “play-off” battle, the Brazilians came face to face, who were forced to take breaks and started to get nervous.
“Anete and Varvara beat the strong Brazilian volleyball players and won first place in the group. The winners played this game without mistakes. We started the play-off with the second round, but the draw was not the best. We got against the Germans and the Russians, and our players had to show the best performance to win, ”says the coach about the decisive battles.
“The Spaniards got everything in the semi-finals, absolutely nothing for us. In the game for the third place in the first set there was a poor reception of the serve, the action was far from the net… In the second set we changed the direction of the service, we started to serve along the longest opponent and forced the opponents closer to the line. We also worked well in defense. The success of the third set was at some points on the Swiss side, ”says Šmēdiņš, adding that the Latvians“ snatched ”the fourth place and did not stay in the fourth place, and that Varvara played all the games with painkillers.
“We didn’t drop out of the overall ensemble, but there was not enough experience,” says their coach Atvars Vilde about the performance of the boys. “The U-19 championship was the main one for us, but in two games against strong opponents we lost the initiative and lost one match in an equal fight. We did not meet the goal, but we gained experience and I am satisfied with other elements. ”
“I am 100% satisfied with the second tournament – we fought for the victory in the group. In the fight for exclusion, the Swiss opponents were already grown men compared to us. However, we were also able to fight them, and the Swiss respected us. We completed the task – to fight for victory in each game. It was a success to enter the U-19 Main Event, and these three games were the key to showing off my best performance in the U-21 Championship, ”said Vilde, adding that the tournament had a very pleasant atmosphere, as the entire Latvian delegation was like a big family. – both coaches and players. It was a very pleasant event – we were a big team with the help of coaches and players.
More about the World U-21 Championship here
Results
U21 results
Photo: FIVB
