Alanya, Turkey,
June 22, 2012 - The Netherlands, Poland, Austria and Norway all advanced
to the semifinal phase of the CEV Men's Beach Volleyball Continental
Cup on Friday following victories over Sweden, Russia, Turkey and Spain
respectively in their best-of-five duels in Alanya, Turkey.
In
the first morning session on the centre court Dutch pair Emiel
Boersma-Daan Spijkers opened with a 21-15, 21-18 triumph against Petter
and Viktor Jonsson from Sweden. Alexander Brouwer-Robert Meeuwsen then
claimed a 24-22, 21-15 win over Hannes Brinkborg-Stefan Gunnarsson,
before Boersma E.-Spijkers ended the first quarterfinal in the
Netherland’s favor.
On court two, Poland's
Michal Kadziola-Jakub Szalankiewicz dominated in their two outings of
the day. They first beat Russia’s Serguei Prokopiev-Yury Bogatov 21-17,
21-15 and then proved too good for Konstantin Semenov-Yaroslav Koshkarev
with a two-set win 21-19, 21-18. Poland’s second team Bartosz
Losiak-Piotr Kantor contributed greatly with a hard-fought 2-1 (16-21,
21-17, 15-11) win over Russian Semenov-Koshkarev to offer Poland their
ticket for the semifinals.
In the quarterfinal
clash of Norway and Spain, Norvegian Tarjei Skarlund-Martin Spinnangr
began the day outdueling Spain’s Raul Mesa-Inocencio Lario 21-16, 14-21,
15-13 and still had enough in the tank to prevail again 2-1 (21-16,
12-21, 15-10) over the second Iberian team Francisco Marcos-Christian
García in their afternoon clash. Iver Andreas Horrem-Geir Eithun didn’t
help their countrymen in the morning session with a 0-2 loss (16-21,
20-22) against Marcos-García. However, they kept cool in their second
match of the day by beating Mesa-Lario 2-1 (21-17, 12-21, 15-13) to give
Norway their ticket for Saturday’s semifinals.
Finally,
number two seeded Austria overpowered hosts Turkey 3-1 to take the
fourth spot in tomorrow’s semifinals. In the opening match of this
eagerly awaited quarterfinal contest, Clemens Doppler-Alexander Horst
proved too strong for the local heroes Murat Giginoglu-Hakan Gögtepe
21-16, 21-19, while the second Turkish team Selcuk Sekerci-Volkan
Gögtepe fought heroically to level the duel 1-1 with a 2-1 (21-14,
18-21, 15-10) victory over Alexander Huber-Robin Seidl. Doppler-Horst
set the pace again for Austria in the third duel, overpowering
Sekerci-Gögtepe in straight sets (21-12, 21-13). Huber-Seidl eventually
closed it out with a convincing 2-0 (21-19, 21-11) over
Giginoglu-Gögtepe.
With the Olympic Games 2012
approaching fast, the CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final is the
last and deciding stage of the competition with the best European teams
stemming from the previous rounds trying to fulfill their Olympic
dream.
Since Friday players from eight
countries have been fighting for one ticket to the London Olympics.
However, all is not lost for the nations finishing second and third as
they move on to the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Cup Olympic
Qualification tournament, set to take place in Moscow, Russia from June
28 to July 1. The champions and runners up from this competition will
claim the final berths to the Games, completing the line-up.
The
competition will resume on Saturday with the semifinals, where the
Netherlands take on Poland and Austria have a thrilling duel versus
Norway.
Results
The Netherlands vs Sweden 3-0
Boersma E.-Spijkers vs Jonsson-Jonsson 2-0 (21-15, 21-18)
Brouwer-Meeuwsen vs Brinkborg-Gunnarsson 2-0 (24-22, 21-15)
Boersma E.-Spijkers vs Brinkborg-Gunnarsson 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-13)
Poland vs Russia 3-0
Kadziola-Szalankiewicz vs Prokopiev-Bogatov 2-0 (21-17, 21-15)
Losiak-Kantor vs Semenov-Koshkarev 2-1 (16-21, 21-17, 15-11)
Kadziola-Szalankiewicz vs Semenov-Koshkarev 2-0 (21-19, 21-18)
Norway vs Spain 3-1
Skarlund-Spinnangr vs Mesa-Lario 2-1 (21-16, 14-21, 15-13)
Horrem-Eithun vs Marcos-García 0-2 (16-21, 20-22)
Skarlund-Spinnangr vs Marcos-García 2-1 (21-16, 12-21, 15-10)
Horrem-Eithun vs Mesa-Lario 2-1 (21-17, 12-21, 15-13)
Austria vs Turkey 3-1
Doppler-Horst vs Giginoglu-Gögtepe H. 2-0 (21-16, 21-19)
Huber-Seidl vs Sekerci-Gögtepe V. 1-2 (14-21, 21-18, 10-15)
Doppler-Horst vs Sekerci-Gögtepe V. 2-0 (21-12, 21-13)
Huber-Seidl vs Giginoglu-Gögtepe H. 2-0 (21-19, 21-11)
