Slovenian Kotnik/Lovšin T. claim a second medal in two weeks at the 1-Star FIVB World Tour in Madrid

Teams from Spain, Slovenia and Ukraine compose the podium of the 1-Star event held in Madrid

It was the recently crowned Spanish national champions, Paula Soria and Belén Carro, who ended up stopping the victorious run of the Slovenian National Champions Tjaša Kotnik and Tajda Lovšin in the final of the 1-Star FIVB World Tour event held at Parque Deportivo Puerta de Hierro in Madrid. The Slovenian duo added another medal to their resume after they claimed bronze a week ago in Cervia.

The home favourites beat Slovenia’s Tjaša Kotnik/Tajda Lovšin 21-14, 21-15 in the final match of the tournament held in the Spanish capital. In the bronze medal match, Ukraine’s Anhelina Khmil and Tetiana Lazarenko came from behind to edge Finnish sisters Ida and Sara Sinisalo.

After winning the pool over a local Spanish and Ukrainian team, the Slovenian duo faced for the second tournament in a row Czechia’s Dunarova/Resova and again celebrated in three sets. In the semifinal against the Finnish sisters they won with the biggest margin of all their matches in the event.

Dunarova/Resova accompanied the Slovenian silver medal with a 5th place, while the Hungarian team Szombathelyi, S./Villám finished on the 13th place.

In Nijmegen a double gender 1-Star was happening at the same time. Austrian interim’s duo of Florian Schnetzer and Julian Hoerl celebrated a strong 4th place finish, after winning some tough matches against teams from France, Denmark and Czech Republic before being stopped by the local hero, Gstaad winner and Vice-European Champion Stefan Boermans (semifinal) and the Bello brothers (bronze medal match).
Sepka/Semerad and Dzavoronok/Sedlak ended just outside the semifinal ranks in the 5th place, while another Czech team in Knobloch/Kittel finished 9th.

On the women’s end it was only the Austrian Freiberger/Fink, who finished 9th after initially being eliminated already in the qualification, but advancing as a so called “lucky loser”.

The programme of the final competition day included a number of activities for fans and a masterclass for more than 200 young players who received branded t-shirts as a souvenir from the event.

Results
Final
Soria/Carro (ESP) – Kotnik/Lovšin, T. (SLO) 2-0 (21-14, 21-15)

Semifinals
Kotnik/Lovšin, T. (SLO) – Sinisalo, I./Sinisalo, S. (FIN) 2-0 (21-19, 21-14)

Quarterfinals
Kotnik/Lovšin, T. (SLO) – Dunarova/Resova (CZE) 2-1 (21-15, 15-21, 15-5)

Round of 12
Moreno/Vergara (ESP) – Dunarova/Resova CZE [11] [Q]1-2 (18-21, 21-18, 12-15)

Pool Play
Kotnik/Lovšin, T. (SLO) – Khmil/Lazarenko (UKR) 2-0 (21-16, 26-24)
Kotnik/Lovšin, T. (SLO) – Florian/Bouza (ESP) 2-1 (21-11, 22-24, 15-8)
Szombathelyi, S./Villám (HUN) – Dunarova/Resova (CZE) 1-2 (13-21, 21-18, 12-15)
Hollas, H./Soomets (EST) – Dunarova/Resova (CZE) 2-0 (21-12, 21-12)
Lobato/González (ESP) – Szombathelyi, S./Villám (HUN) 2-0 (22-20, 22-20)

Qualification
Hladun/Udovenko (UKR) – Dunarova/Resova (CZE) 0-2 (19-21, 18-21)
Szombathelyi, S./Villám (HUN) – Evans/Tucker (ENG) 2-0 (21-13, 21-15)
Dostalova, M./Francova (CZE) – Ditta/Leoni (ITA) 0-2 (14-21, 5-21)
Szombathelyi, S./Villám (HUN) – Maestri/Santisteban (ESP) 2-0 (30-28, 21-16)
Skrastina/Dreimane (LAT) – Dostalova, M./Francova (CZE) 0-2 (21-23, 10-21)