It has already been announced that the Latvian beach volleyball duo Kristiāns Fokerots/Oliver Bulgačs defeated the Austrian pair in the fight for third place in the European U-22 championships in the Romanian city of Timisoara on Saturday, thus winning the tournament’s bronze awards.
“We are young, and we can play in U-22 tournaments for another two to three years. The difference between the U-22, U-20 and U-18 players is quite big, especially this year, because the players from other countries were ahead of us in terms of physicality, age and maturity. We are behind in this indicator, but we are making up for it in technical terms. This time, the conditions were such that strength did not play as big a role in the decisive battles as endurance and technical performance, because we competed in high heat in the last two days. It was a real battle of characters,” Atvars Vilde, coach of the bronze medalists, said after the tournament.
“In the group game with the Spaniards, the opponents played a phenomenal game – the best in the tournament. It was a good test to see what we were doing wrong. We put all the pieces in the right places, sorted out the head and the game, and the result, I would like to say now, is natural.”
“The girls also performed very well, in my opinion. Maybe a little lack of team play as the couple was created at the last minute. In the games won, Anete was the key to success in defense, as she sometimes showed miracles just when she needed to. She did what the women’s pair coach Aleksandra Soloway and I expected from her. Līva also held on to her honor and persevered,” says Vilde about the fourth place of the Latvian women’s duet.
The Latvian team will arrive in Riga on a flight from Frankfurt near Riga on Sunday shortly before midnight at 23.35.
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