Sochi, Russian, May 5, 2016 - Thursday will be a day to remember for Russian Beach Volleyball followers as the host country won all 12 of its pool play matches here Thursday in the men’s and women competition at the US$150,000 Sochi Open.
While four Russian women’s team were only playing and winning all four of their matches Thursday to earn berths in Friday morning’s opening elimination round, all four of the host country men’s pairs combined to win eight matches with three of the tandems capturing pool titles and the fourth tandem finishing third in their group.
BEST-EVER DAY
Thursday’s successes marked the first-time ever that Russian men’s and women’s teams combined to win 12 total matches in a single-day at a FIVB World Tour event since the start of the international circuit in 1987 for men and 1992 for women.
The Sochi Open marks the 18th FIVB World Tour event to be staged in Russia with host country pairs winning three times. But never when hosting an international event have the Russian men and women been as successful as they were Thursday.
Leading the “Russian Rush” Thursday were the three pool winners - eighth-seeded Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Konstantin Semenov (Pool H), 27th-seeded qualifiers Ruslan Bykanov/Yaroslav Koshkarev (Pool F) and 28th-seeded Ilya Leshukov/Nikita Liamin (Pool E). While Krasilnikov/Semenov won their group with a 3-0 mark, the other two teams came back from an opening setback Wednesday in their pool to win two matches each Thursday.
PERFECT 3-0
Krasilnikov and Semenov opened play Wednesday by defeating 25th-seeded qualifiers Christian Garcia/Francisco Alfredo Marco of Spain Wednesday before posting wins Thursday over 24th-seeded qualifiers Alexandr Dyachenko/Alexey Sidorenko of Kazakhstan 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) and ninth-seeded Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai of 2-1 (21-18, 16-21, 15-12) Thursday.
After losing Wednesday to fifth-seeded Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri of Italy Wednesday, Leshukov and Liamin posted wins over 12th-seeded Markus Bockermann/Alexander Walkenhorst of Germany 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) and 21st-seeded Nico Beeler/Alexei Strasser of Switzerland 2-0 (21-18, 21-12) Thursday to win Pool E based on point ratio with the Italians.
Sixth-seeded Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak of Poland, the top-ranked team on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour, defeated Bykanov and Koshkarev Wednesday, but the Russians rebounded Thursday with victories over 11-seeded Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter of Canada 2-0 (24-22, 21-19) and 22nd-seeded Dries Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle of Belgium 2-1 (21-13, 19-21, 15-10).
YOUTH OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS
Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic champions Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin finished Pool A play with a 2-1 record, but finished third in the group with pairs from Poland and Austria due to the tie-breaker based on point ratio. After losing 2-0 (21-12, 21-17)) to 16th-seeded Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz of Poland Wednesday, the 17th-seeded Stoyanovskiy and Yarzutkin defeated top-seeded Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst of Austria 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) and 32nd-seeded Kusti Nolvak/Mart Tiisaar of Estonia 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 15-11).
OTHER POOL WINNERS
In winning their pools, the three Russian pairs advanced to the second-round of Friday’s elimination schedule with “byes” along with being guaranteed a ninth-place finish in the Sochi Open. Five other teams from Austria, Germany, Latvia, Poland and Spain won their groups to also net “byes” and second-round berths in the elimination bracket.
Joining Kadziola and Szalankiewicz (Pool A) as other pool winners Thursday were second-seeded Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain (Pool B), fourth-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins of Latvia (Pool D), 10th-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik of Germany and 19th-seeded Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl Austria (Pool C). Only four of the eight pool winners had perfect records, including Krasilnikov/Semenov, Gavira/Herrera, Samoilovs/Smedins and Huber/Seidl.
RUSSIAN WOMEN
Winning women's matches Thursday for Russia were eighth-seeded Ekaterina Birlova/Evgeniya Ukolova, 19th-seeded Yulia Abalakina/Ekaterina Syrtseva, 22nd-seeded Nadezda Makroguzova/Olga Motrich and 26th-seeded Anastasia Barsuk/Alexandra Moiseeva. Each will play an elimination first-round match Friday morning as three of the teams placed second in their pools Thursday and one third.
The second- and third-place finishers in each pool will meet in the first-round of elimination Friday morning with the winners advancing to the afternoon’s “Sweet” 16” matches against the pool champions. Following Friday’s two elimination rounds for men and women, Saturday’s schedule will feature quarter- and semi-final matches. The medal matches will be Sunday where the winning men’s and women’s pairs will each share the $11,000 first-place prizes.
UP NEXT
Following Sochi, the final four FIVB World Tour qualifying events will be played in Turkey (Antalya, 10-15), the United States (Cincinnati, May 17-22), Moscow (May 24-29) and Germany (Hamburg, June 7-12). Also counting towards Olympic qualification will be the European championships June 1-5 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland.