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Vienna, Austria. After working together for two spells before Christmas and the New Year’s Eve, the members of the Austrian men’s national team have now started the last stage of their preparations for the EuroVolley qualifier due to run from January 12 to 17 in Hadera, Israel.
The group, including 16 players and the coaching staff, resumed working at the VIVA Sports Centre in Steinbrunn this past Saturday, January 2. They will be staying in a ‘bubble’ for a week in order to prevent infections from the novel coronavirus. After completion of this camp, Team Austria will be flying to Israel to play the hosts as well as Bulgaria in a double round robin tournament.
In addition to ball and fitness training as well as video analysis of the opponents, three test games feature on the programme of the camp in Steinbrunn. On Monday and Tuesday, captain Peter Wohlfahrtstätter and Co. will be playing two matches against Jihostroj Ceske Budejovice from the Czech Republic, followed by a matchup with Austrian top team SK Zadruga AICH/DOB on Thursday.
The training camp is of course taking place under strict compliance with government regulations to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The prevention concept for national teams designed by the Austrian Volleyball Federation includes regular COVID-19 tests and compliance with hygiene rules, among other things daily checks of everyone’s body temperature and keeping a health diary.
“All 16 players who are now in Steinbrunn are in very good shape. We plan to take 15 of them to Israel. The team atmosphere is excellent, everyone is highly motivated,” says head coach Radovan Gacic (pictured above), whose aim is to provide an opportunity to home young talents to play alongside the more experienced members of the team. “We already took the next step in this direction in June. Clemens Ecker, Lukas Kühl and Maximilian Schedl are currently in Steinbrunn, Niklas Etlinger is absent due to illness, but is already one of them. Furthermore, three or four players who are very interesting for us are currently training with the junior national team. There are also at least seven to eight players between the ages of 15 and 17 that we are monitoring,” Gacic continues. “I do not think we need to worry about the future of Volleyball in Austria!”
Only the pool winners from the qualifier in Israel will secure their participation in the final stage of the competition co-hosted by Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia and Finland later this year. The runners-up will have to wait until May, i.e. for completion of all other pools, to know their fate in the competition. Austria qualified for the EuroVolley final stage for the first time in 2019, when they finished the competition in 23rd place.
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