No teams from Austria have reached the semis of this year’s #EuroBeachVolleyU22 in Baden, where the competition will be reaching its climax on Sunday with the semis followed by the medal matches. Ronja Klinger/Julia Mitter and Laurenz Leitner/Laurenc Grössig were the best performing home tandems, as they finished the event in ninth place.
Ronja Klinger and Julia Mitter lost to Russia’s top favourites Maria Voronina and Mariia Bocharova
“It took us a bit to find our way into the tournament, but then we got into a flow. Therefore, it is a double shame that it was all over with the Round of 16. The draw was not that good for us either, but we gave it our all and we cannot blame ourselves. You can lose against such a top team, even if we would of course have preferred to play them only in the final.”
Ronja Klinger
Player of Team Austria
The women’s semis will feature some of the pre-favourite teams, including Russia’s multiple age group European and world champions Maria Voronina and Mariia Bocharova. Reigning U20 European champions Anete Namike and Varvara Brailko of Latvia have reached the semis as well, despite a relatively rocky start to their campaign in Baden. Raïsa Schoon/Emi van Driel (NED) and Anhelina Khmil/Tetiana Lazarenko of Ukraine complete the line-up of the semis.
The reigning U22 and U20 European champions have reached the last four of the men’s competition – with Alexey Gusev/Pavel Shustrov of Russia still in contention for back-to-back U22 continental titles, while David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden are hoping to add the U22 crown to the gold medal they won last year in Brno in the U20 competition. Milosz Kruk and Mikolaj Miszczuk of Poland have reached the semis too after a hard-fought quarterfinal victory over Italy. Latvia are the only country to have qualified a team for the semis in both genders – as Arturs Rinkevics and Ardis Bedritis easily thumped their Israeli opponents in the quarterfinals.
Leitner/Grössig end the competition in ninth place after losing to Slovenia in the Round of 16
“With two ninth places, the quarter-final goal was just missed. Klinger/Mitter challenged the top team from Russia for much of the first set and only had to give up their lead at the end. In the second set, Voronina and Bocharova showed their class and won confidently. Nevertheless, the game showed that we are not very far from the best teams in Europe. After a strong performance in the second round, Leitner and Grössig performed well against the Slovenes. Unfortunately, they lost the match in the tiebreak,” said Florian Schabbauer, Beach Volleyball Coordinator of the Austrian Volleyball Association.
