Varvara Brailko and Anete Namiķe | Photo: LVF
Latvia will be represented by three duos at the European beach volleyball championship in Munich – in addition to Aleksandar Samoilov and Jānis Šmēdiņš and the women’s pair Tīn Graudiņš/Anastasija Kravčenok, Varvara Brailko/Anete Namiķe will also participate in the competition, the Latvian Volleyball Federation announced on its Facebook account on Tuesday.
After several couples above them refused to participate in the tournament, Brailko and Namiķe have become participants of the main tournament from reserve players and will meet the German pair Karla Borger/Julia Zude in group F. In the second match of the group, two Italian pairs will meet – Valentina Gottardi/Marta Menegati and Reka Orsi Tota/Viktoria Orsi Tota.
The winners of the first games will fight for the victory in the group and a place in the “play-off” in the second round, while the losers will fight for the continuation of the competition in the elimination battles. The teammates of Brailko and Namikė in the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) Nations Cup, where they won bronze medals, Graudiņš and Kravčenok, seeded third and in the first match of Group C, will meet Danish athletes Klara Windeleff and Sofia Bisgorda. Their opponents in the second match will be determined between the Finns Taru Lahti and Annina Parkinen and the French couple Lesanne Plasset/Alexis Richards.
The 2015 champions Samoilovs and Šmēdiņš will meet the Polish duo Piotrs Kantor/Macejs Rudols in group B, while their opponents in the second match will be the 2013 world champions from the Netherlands, Aleksander Brouwer and Robert Mevsen, as well as the German pair Filip Huster/Zimons Pfrechsner. At the top of the reserve list are two more Latvian duets Edgars Točs/Kristians Fokerots and Artūrs Rinkevičs/Ardis Bedrītis, who are injured.
The European championships will be held in Munich from August 15 to 21. In addition to Samoilov and Šmēdins, two Latvian couples have also become European champions. In the fall of 2009, Inguna Minusa and Inese Jursone won the final of the European Championship in Sochi, and in 2019, Graudiņa and Kravčenok became the champions in Moscow.
