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| Brazil & Latvia Headed for Men's FIVB U-21 World Championship "Final Four" |
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Porto Santo, Portugal, September 18, 2004 - With Brazil already guaranteed a spot in Sunday's semi-finals, Latvia will have two chances for berths in the "final four" of the fourth annual men's FIVB U-21 World Championships for players under 21 years old heading into Saturday afternoon's quarter-final matches.
Latvia advanced two teams in the quarter-finals 24th-seeded Valters Ramma and Toms Smedins and 16th-seeded Martins Plavins and Aleksandra Samoilovs won their first-round matches over teams from the Netherlands and Mexico, respectively.
Ramma and Smedins, who had to win two qualifying matches Wednesday to earn a spot in the 24-team Main Draw, plays ninth-seeded Andreas Martin Sutter and Jonas Weingart of Switzerland while Plavins and Samoilovs are challenged by 20th-seeded Tom Götz and Stefan Uhmann of Germany. The Swiss eliminated a team from Poland while the Germans ousted a tandem from Russian Saturday morning.
Saturday last quarter-final match will be an All-Brazilian affair as second-seeded Moisés Santos and Pedro Solberg Salgado are challenged by 23rd-seeded Ian Borges and Oscar Brandão after both teams eliminated teams from Australia and Austria, respectively, Saturday morning.
Solberg Salgado is a defending FIVB U-21 World Champion after winning the title in France last season when he and Pedro Cunha defeated Daniel Krug and Mischa Urbatzka of Germany in the finals 21-12 and 21-18.
With Brazilian now guaranteed its fourth-straight trip to the FIVB U-21 World's "final four" after capturing two gold medals and a silver in the first three championships, the South Americans will play the winner of the match between fifth-seeded Grégoire Capitaine and Quentin Marion of France against eighth-seeded Miguel Angel Amo/Inocencio Lario of Spain.
After losing to Götz and Uhmann in pool play Thursday, Capitaine and Marion avenged a setback to Germany's No. 2 U-21 team by defeating third-seeded Stanislav Bakumovski and Sebastian Dollinger, the German's No. 1-rated tandem, 21-19, 20-22 and 15-11 in the longest match of the competition so far (63 minutes).
The Spaniards also posted a win over a U-21 pool winner as Amo and Lario scored a 21-17 and 21-17 victory over seventh-seeded Petr Nezdaril and Martin Tichy of the Czech Republic. Spain's Pablo Herrera and Raul Mesa won the 2002 FIVB U-21 title after placing second in 2001.
Solberg Salgado's sister Carolina has advanced to the finals of the women's U-21 Championships with Taiana Lima, who won the 2002 U-21 title with Juliana Felisberta Silva. Carolina Solberg Salgado was third in last year's U-21 World finals with Maria Salgado Rufino in Saint Quay Portrieux, France. |
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