European U-20 vice-champions Liva Eber (from left) and Daniela Konstantinova with coach Aleksandar Solovey.
Photo: LVF
Gints Narogs, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”
Latvian beach volleyball players have had a successful weekend in tournaments of various levels, the most surprising being 16-year-old Daniela Konstantinova and fourteen-year-old Līva Ēbere, who won second place in the European U-20 Championship in the Turkish city of Izmir.
Both Latvian beach volleyball players were much younger than their rivals, but played an almost perfect tournament. Three convincing 2-0 wins in the group against rivals from Belgium, Slovakia and Sweden. It was more difficult later, but in the round of 16, the Austrians were defeated in three sets, and in the quarterfinals, the Hungarians were also defeated by a similar score of 2:1.
The test of character was in the semi-finals against the second number of the tournament, Brecht Peersma/Dessie Poesch from the Netherlands, but also a victory with 2:1 (19:21, 21:14, 18:16). In the final, Ukrainians Anhelina Khmylia/Tetyana Lazarenko, who last year became world champions in the U-21 age group, faced each other. They proved their status as favorites by defeating the Latvian duo 2:0 (21:13, 21:17) in the decisive match. It should be emphasized that Konstantinova and Ēbere do not play together every day, Daniela’s partner is Varvara Brailko, but Līva won the third stage of the Latvian Championship in Cēsis together with Aneta Namiķi a week ago.
At the European U-20 Championship, completely different pairs were originally planned as well – Konstantinova/Amanda Regute and Eber/Kitija Martini, but there was a conflict within the team, the distribution of pairs changed and the result shows that it is for the better. Kristians Fokerots and Olivers Bulgačs also played in the boys competition in Izmir, who fought until the round of 16, finishing the tournament in shared ninth place.
Meanwhile, in the professional beach volleyball tour (“Beach Pro Tour”), the tournament of the “Challenge” series took place in the Portuguese city of Espinho last week. Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Jānis Šmēdins won Ešpinja four years ago, now they have a bronze medal. Win and loss in the group, victory over the Dutch and Italians in the round of 16 and quarter-final, in the semi-final with 1:2 (21:14, 18:21, 9:15) lost to Poland’s Michal Bril/Bartosz Losjak, but in the bronze match winning 2:0 (21: 17, 21:14) against another Polish duo Piotr Kantor/Macej Rudola. At the beginning of the season, Samoilovs/Šmēdiņš won the third place in the “Challenge” stage in the Mexican city of Tlascal in March, now they climbed on the podium for the second time in the season in the professional tour. Edgars Toch/Artūrs Rinkevičs also played in Portugal, but did not pass the qualification and stopped in the second round.
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