Anapa, Russia, July 25, 2013
– While the women’s pool play at the inaugural Anapa Open was finalized on
Thursday, the men still have one more pool match to go. The eight pool winners in the
women’s competition, including three Russian teams, advanced straight into the
second knockout round. The numbers two and three start in the first elimination
round on Friday. In the men’s competition
seven teams booked two straight wins on the first day of main draw, including
top seeded Russians Konstantin Semenov and Yaroslav Koshkarev and qualifiers
Necj Zemljak and Jan Pokersnik from Slovenia. Pool D features an
interesting match on Friday with Germany’s Finn Dittelbach and Eric Koreng
playing Argentina’s Ian Mehamed and Julian Amado Azaad for top position. Beach veteran Eric Koreng starts all over again
in Anapa
At the age of 32 Eric Koreng
is one of the ‘oldest’ German beach volleyball players still active on the FIVB
World Tour. He made his debut in 2003 and had many successful years with David
Klemperer.
Together they finished 5th at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, won the Grand
Slam in Stavanger in 2010 and collected four silver and three bronze medals on
the World Tour. More
Poland’s Brzostek and
Kolosinska one of three teams to advance with straight wins
Only three teams entered the
women’s elimination rounds of the FIVB Anapa Open with three straight wins in
pool play.
One of them was surprisingly enough Russia’s 23rd seeded Olga Motrich and
Alexandra Shiryaeva, the other two were Kazakhstan’s second seeded Tatyana
Mashkova and Irina Tsimbalova and fourth seeded Monika Brzostek and Kinga
Kolosinska from Poland. More
Argentina’s Gallay and Klug
fight their way to the top
Argentina’s Ana Gallay and
Georgina Klug can be heard a mile away. During their matches the two
South-American girls shout, scream and make heads turn at the FIVB Anapa Open
with their very outgoing way of playing beach volleyball.
“Argentinean people usually play like that, with alegria [joy], screaming and
maybe stressing the other team out”, Klug said. More
Israel’s new beach boys dream
of the Olympics
Israel’s Ariel Hilman and
Sean Faiga started a new adventure eight months ago. They had been dreaming of
the Olympics for years and decided that the best way to get there was to switch
from volleyball to beach.
The 25-year old athletes quit their indoor careers and became the flagship team
of a new beach volleyball programme in Israel. More
The FIVB Anapa Open continues
at 9.00 on Friday with the first elimination round in the women’s competition.
Round two and three will follow later that day. The men will finalize the pool
play on Friday.
The women’s semifinals and
medal matches are scheduled for Saturday, the men’s follow one day behind.
The Russian tournament,
staged at the nation federation (beach) volleyball complex in Anapa, is the
second of seven Open events this year, including five double gender and two
women-only tournaments.