THREE MEDALS TO GERMANY

The U20 European Beach Volleyball Championships

Koper/Luxembourg, July 27, 2004. Germany proved to be the most successful country during the third edition of the Under 20 European Championships, which were held on the fine beaches of the port of Koper, Slovenia, collecting gold and bronze in the women’s draw as well as silver in the men’s.

Flemig/Semmler were the deserved winners of the ladies’ table leaving their German compatriots Fischer/Piasecki behind on third place. Even though the latter named defeated the later European champion during the second elimination round (27:25, 21:17) the German favourites Fischer/Piasecki exited the competition earlier than expected, namely in the semi-final by losing to Austrian sister pair Schwaiger (17:21, 21:19, 12:15). However, they still returned home to Germany with a medal when taking their revenge on Stevens/Van Iersel (NED), who beat them during the elimination rounds, in the bronze medal match with 21:18, 19:21, 15:8. The final lasted a tough 46 minutes with Flemig/Semmler deciding the tiebreak set against Schwaiger/Schwaiger (AUT) 15:10 in their favour.

The final in the men’s resulted in a re-match of the elimination rounds between Latvians Samoilovs/Plavins, who surprisingly beat their Latvian fellows Smedins J./Smedins T. in a previous encounter, and Götz/Uhmann from Germany. Whilst the Germans won the less important third round match in only 36 minutes, the Latvians turned up a gear in the game for gold thrashing Germany II 21:18, 21:15. Lach/Lyczko from Poland deservedly reaped the bronze medal beating Smedins/Smedins (LAT I), Alcaraz/De Amo (ESP I) and finally Gortsaniouk/Papadimitriou (GRE) on their way.

More on the web at www.cev.lu

Enjoy & Be There:
29 July - 1 August 2004: Under 23 European Beach Volleyball Championships, Brno, Czech Republic.
5-8 August 2004: Under 18 European Beach Volleyball Championships, Myslowice, Poland.
2 September 2004: Drawing of lots 2004-2005 Indesit European Champions’ League, Vienna, Austria.
3-11 September 2004: Women’s Under 19 European Championships, Bardejov, Presov, Slovakia.
4-12 September 2004: Men’s Under 20 European Championships, Zagreb, Croatia.