Έρχεται ο Μιλιβόγιεβιτς!

Για το βράδυ της Κυριακής είναι προγραμματισμένη η άφιξη του ενός εκ των δύο ξένων παικτών του ΑΡΗ Μαρμούρη για τη νέα αγωνιστική περίοδο, του Αλεξάντερ Μιλιβόγιεβιτς. Έτσι, λοιπόν, ένα-ένα τα κομμάτια στο ρόστερ των “κιτρίνων” συμπληρώνονται, ενώ απόντες εξακολουθούν να είναι οι Νίκος Ρουμελιώτης και Νίκολα Κοβάσεβιτς, λόγω των υποχρεώσεών τους με τις Εθνικές ομάδες της χώρας τους.

Τέλος, στον αγωνιστικό τομέα, η ομάδα προπονήθηκε κανονικά σήμερα, ενώ ο Γιώργος Οικονομίδης έδωσε διήμερο ρεπό στους παίκτες του το σαββατοκύριακο, ελέω Δεκαπενταύγουστου.

Germany take double gold and double bronze at U23 ECH in Russia

Germans Büthe-Grossner and Walkenhorst-Windscheif stood atop the U23 European Beach Volleyball Championships podium as they captured the men’s and women’s gold medal here in Yantarniy Beach, Russia, late Sunday afternoon in front of more than 1,500 excited spectators. German Borger-Sude as well as Köhler-Rohde claimed bronze.



CEV Vice President Jan Hronek as well as Mr. Vladimir Patkin, General Secretary of the Russian Volleyball Federation and CEV Board of Administration member, saw a breathtaking first set in the women’s gold medal match today in Yantarniy Beach, Russia, as both ladies teams Büthe-Grossner from Germany as well as first-seeded Czech Kolokova-Slukova were ready to battle bravely for their first U23 gold medal. When Germans defense specialist Julia Grossner grabed another Czech hammer, Büthe-Grossner already led 19-16. Some moments later, the young Germans finished the first set 21-18 with another well-timed combination.
In the second set, the scoreboard advanced again quite slowly, as both teams proved strong mental power. Kristyna Kolokova brought up set point for the Czechs, and when Grossner’s line shot was some centimeters too long, the high-level gold medal duel went into tie-break.
The Germans led 4-1, and then 8-5, forcing the Czech ladies calling their time-out. But it was already too late. The Büthe-Grossner express was unstoppable now. Büthe brought up match point at 14-12 with a powerful smash, before Grossner ended it two rallies later with a clever diagonal shot, bouncing the German duo into their golden heaven.

“I can’t realize it”, said a very joyful Britta Büthe minutes after the match. “The Czech team was favorite; but suddenly we saw our chance for gold. Julia was doing a perfect job in defense, so I felt just happy and enjoyed playing. Let’s party now, we still have some energy left”, smiled Büthe.



The men’s final encounter faced hosts Yutvalin-Kostyukhin and German Walkenhorst-Windscheif. Even when the Russians played in front of more than 1,500 thrilled fans, German Alexander Walkenhorst und Stefan Windscheif set the pace in the Men’s CEV U23 European Beach Volleyball final match, closing out the first set 21-10 (!).
Things remained stable in the second set as the Germans proved too strong for the Russian duo. However, the hosts fought courageously, trailing 13-16 in the middle of set 2. German Walkenhorst blocked as a champion, whilst his partner managed the defense. Windscheif brought up match point at 20-14 with a hammer through the middle, and ended it only moments later with a smart block-out, 21-14, securing the fourth German medal at the 2009 U23 European Beach Volleyball championships.

“We felt confidently before today’s gold medal match”, said Alexander Walkenhorst. “We didn’t play our best volleyball the first two days, but found our rhythm yesterday afternoon. Furthermore, our strategy worked as planned today, that’s awesome.”

Karla Borger and Julia Sude claimed bronze with a convincing victory over Polish Katarzyna Urban and Joanna Wiatr (24-22, 21-15). After a very balanced first set (24-22), the young German talents used their physical superiority to secure their well-deserved bronze medals. “We had a very hard task yesterday with three tough games in the loser’s bracket”, said Karla Borger after the bronze medal duel. “Nevertheless, we felt ready today. We varied our serves what the Polish didn’t like. We are happy.”

In the men’s bronze medal clash, Stefan Köhler blocked for a 22-20 win in the second set, leveling the game 1-1 against Polish Kadziola-Szalankiewicz. The Germans kept their nerves in the decider, leading 9-6, 13-10, and 14-11. Another Köhler block closed it out at 15-11 with Köhler/Rohde claiming the second bronze medal for the German delegation. “The bronze medal match reflected our whole tournament with many ups and downs”, explained Nils Rohde. “We felt tired after four long days, but our mental power finally made the difference today. What a great experience!”

Earlier in the day, Kolocova-Slukova as well as Büthe-Grossner proved too strong for their opponents in the women’s semi-finals. Kolocova-Slukova knocked out Borger-Sude in straight sets, whilst Büthe-Grossner overpowered Polish Urban-Wiatr in tie-break 15-13. In the men’s tournament, Walkenhorst-Windscheif (21-8, 21-17 against Kadziola-Szalankiewicz) as well as Yutvalin-Kostyukhin (21-20, 21-15 versus Köhler-Rohde) got the ticket to the prestigious final match of the U23 European Championships with very solid play.

The 2009 U23 European Beach Volleyball Championships in Yantarniy turned out to be a major success. More than 3,500 fans enjoyed the matches in Yantarniy Beach at the Baltic Sea. Fans and journalists from all over Europe were present with the matches being broadcasted live on TV. “We saw a very nice tournament on a wonderful venue”, said CEV Technical Supervisor Henrique Gomes. “The organization as well as the player’s level were excellent.”

Yantarmiy Beach is located in the region of Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast. Kaliningrad Oblast forms the westernmost part of the Russian Federation, but it has no land connection to the rest of Russia. Since the fall of the Soviet Union it has been an exclave of the Russian Federation surrounded by Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea. Borderless travel to the main part of Russia is only possible by sea or air.

Serbia and Spain join the entry list for the final round of the 2010 Worlds

As it was expected, the two pre-favorite teams managed to qualify for the final round of the 2010 FIVB Men’s World Championship after two days of competition at the tournament being currently staged in Kragujevac. This afternoon Spain had to go all the way through up to the fifth set to beat a promising Romanian team 3-2 (25-17, 23-25, 21-25, 27-25, 15-13), and Serbia easily broke the Estonian defense to win 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-22) in front of 3100 spectators at the “Jezero” Hall of Sports.


The reigning European champions of Spain had to dig deep to overcome all sort of problems that the Romanian team put in front of them, but at the end they managed to complete the mission of having two victories in the first two competition days. Right from the start, the Spanish team imposed their rhythm and during the first set the Romanians never came close to even think that this first section of the match might have been within their reach. However, in the second set, the Romanian team managed to equilibrate the situation on the court and the teams reached the second technical time-out playing point-by-point (16:15 for Spain). Both teams continued to struggle up to 23:23, when two mistakes from the Spanish side helped the Romanians to tie the match at 1 set for both. In the third set, Romania completed their comeback and kept the convincing lead throughout the whole distance. In the fourth set, the Spanish team showed their fighting spirit and they went to the first technical time-out leading at 8:7. At the second break, the Spanish lead got less narrow (16:14). Romania managed to tie the count at 25:25, but two consecutive points by the Spanish side brought this match to the tie-break. In the deciding fifth set, Spain immediately took control of the operations, but risked 3 match points before being able to finish the match at 15:13.
Legendary Julio Velasco, Spanish head coach commented: “It was hard and we knew that, because Romania is a very good team, and they improved a lot this year. Again, we had problems in reception, but I’m glad that we managed to recover in the fourth and fifth set”.
Romanian mentor Stelian Moculescu added: “It was a good game, unfortunately we lost, but what can you do. Congratulations to the Spanish team. We had a good chance of winning 3:1, we missed it, and life goes on”.



The host team of Serbia started the match against Estonia with a strong will to perform well this evening. Right from the start, the Serbian team got a comfortable lead and it only got bigger by the end of the set. In the first set, the host team left only 15 points to their rivals. In the second set, the crowd in the “Jezero” Hall of Sports did see a real evenly matched clash, because the Estonians significantly raised their level of play. However, they didn’t have enough strength to push it until the end, so the hosts edged out their rivals 25:23. In the third set, Serbia was too strong once again and brought this match to a closure without any problems. The final result was 3:0 (25:15, 25:23, 25:22) for the home side.


Serbian coach Igor Kolakovic: “This is a very important result for us, we played with Romania and Estonia, and you could see that they raised their level of game significantly in recent times, even though they are not among the best European teams. Tonight we won with ease, the result is showing clearly the difference, we started to show off a little bit in the second set, but the Estonian team warned us right away that we should be getting back in track. I think we played very well, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to introduce some players who haven’t had a chance to play in this tournament. We qualified for the World Championship and we are very happy with this result”.


Estonian coach Avo Keel concluded: “Serbia was the favorite team before the start of the tournament and they deserved this victory. I’m glad we had a chance to play with such strong teams and to prepare as much as we can for the upcoming European Championship. This is a good experience for us and I hope we will learn from our mistakes”.

Bulgaria gets closer to book a ticket to Italy

In the second competition day of the 3rd Round Tournament being currently staged in Varna, Bulgaria achieved another impressive victory on the road to Italy 2010. In a direct battle for the top of the table in Pool J, the Lions crushed the Czech Republic 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-14) and almost secured one of the two tickets available for the Worlds. Some uncertainty for the home team derives might derive from the set point ratio, but the Bulgarians are really close to complete their run towards the final round of the World Championship.


The Czechs lost outside hitter Peter Platenik due to an injury in the first set which may have affected their performance. The only set that featured some intrigue on the court was the second one. The Czechs managed to keep it balanced up to point nr. 20, after which some brilliant performances of Bulgarian spiker Todor Aleksiev tilted the score in Bulgaria’s way and then young talent Valentin Bratoev finished the set off with a fantastic ace. Similarly to yesterday’s two games, Bulgarian Matey Kaziyski and Czech David Konecny became the top scorers of the match, this time with 13 points each. The Bulgarian attack was more versatile than yesterday as Todor Aleksiev and Vladimir Nikolov contributed 12 and 10 points respectively to the victory.


“A small secret of our victory was that we made only 8 direct mistakes. Usually we make more” Bulgaria’s head coach Silvano Prandi said after the match. “Tomorrow we will try to play as today. It should be a live-or-die fight for each point. We need to keep this rhythm thinking of the future”. His Czech counterpart Zdenek Hanik added: “Bulgaria was better in each and every element of the game, especially in serving. It is important for us to start thinking about tomorrow's match against Portugal.”


The second match of the day was also a three-set affair, but it was a bit more tied-up as Portugal managed to take turns in leading the score in every single set. However, Holland prevailed on every occasion and won the match 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 26-24) to keep its chances for qualifying alive. The Dutch were certainly more determined to come out on top at the end of this match and succeeded as Rob Bontje finished the Portuguese off with a perfect ace at the match-point. Portuguese opposite Valdir Sequeira became the game’s top scorer with 19 points while Robert Horstink scored 16 for Holland.


For a second day in a row, CEV President André Meyer who is on an official visit to Bulgaria enjoyed the matches as a spectator in the “Dvoretsa na kulturata i sporta” hall in Varna. Today he was accompanied by the President of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation, Mr. Dancho Lazarov, and Vice President Ivan Todorov, while yesterday Bulgaria’s Head of State Georgi Parvanov was also part of the VIP company to be seen on the stands.

Poland finishes home tournament in great fashion for the delight of the local fans

Slovakia and Poland successfully closed out the 3rd Round Tournament – Pool K beating Slovenia (3-2) and France (3-0) respectively this afternoon in Gdynia. The results had not too much weight as the tickets at stake for next year’s final round of the World Championship were already awarded after two days of competition. Now all four teams will start their final preparations for the upcoming European Championships in Turkey, which is set to start next September 3, 2009.


After two losses, Slovenia's coach Gregor Hribar made some changes in the line-up and his guys played really good in the first set. The Slovenians had a slim advantage until the score stayed at 18-16. Then Slovakia leveled and took over the lead (20-19). The team of Italian-born coach Emanuele Zanini silvered their first set point and won the partial 25-23. In the second set Slovakia took the lead just before the first technical time out (8-7). During the whole partial the gap stood at about two, three points, but the Slovenians fought hard for every ball. They managed to catch up with their rivals at 22-22 and playing with higher energy eventually took the set 25-23. The third set had a very similar scenario, but this time Slovakia didn't let the Slovenians to pull the victory out of their hands. The Slovaks showed some good blocking, made fewer mistakes in reception and in attack, what gave them the final 25-21. Slovenia responded with the same result in the fourth set and the fans in the “Gdynia” Hall saw the first tie-break of the tournament. Slovakia started the decisive partial by winning five points in a row and never looked back. The guys from Bratislava took the set 15-12 and the whole match 3-2.


“The motivation was the main problem today – said Zanini. - Nobody likes to play when you are already out of contention. The whole competition was good for us from some points of view, especially as test of our endurance before the upcoming European Championships. Now I know we're well prepared physically, but we still have to improve in many other aspects”.


Slovenia's captain Tine Urnaut looked exhausted at the press conference after the game. “It was a long match and as it was in our previous games in this tournament, we made definitely too many mistakes. We were down twice, but we didn't give up and leveled the score. We had a terrible start in the decisive set and we weren't able to catch up with the Slovaks”.
Both teams will meet again very soon. Slovenia and Slovakia have been drawn in the same pool of the European Championships in Turkey.

Poland and France will also play in the same group at the European Champs and will start their Turkish campaign fighting against each other. With tickets to Italy in the pockets, both coaches decided to use some reserve names in their line-ups. Fully crowded stands served as an additional player for Poland that easily won the opening set 25-17. The second set was much more even, at least in the beginning. Poland led by only one point (8-7) at the first technical time out. The home team doubled the gap just before the second break (16-14) and was clearly running. Some powerful serves of Bartosz Kurek let Poland take a five-point lead and eventually the hosts took the set 25-19. In the third and final period the Poles jumped out to a flying start and led 8-4 at the first technical time out. They increased the lead thanks to great blocking and effective counter attacks. None of the 5000 spectators had any doubts about who was going to win the game. They would surely have watched their pupils in action even for a little bit longer, but the Polish players had completely different plans. The home team finished the job winning quickly the set at 25-21.
“Today's match was rather an exhibition game. Both teams had qualified earlier so the stake wasn't high – Polish captain Pawel Zagumny said. - Nevertheless, I hope the fans aren't disappointed with what they saw”.
Both coaches spoke about the substitutes. While Daniel Castellani was happy with the performance of his back-up players, especially with Pawel Woicki, who was named MVP of the game, Philippe Blain's considerations were a little bit different. “This is not the exact level of my team. I hope this loss won't have any influence on my players before the European Championships. We play there the first game against Poland and I believe that match won't be similar to this one. I wanted to see some reserve players in action and I can say that not everyone played the way I expected them to do”.