Translated material
It's time to sand
The Russians did not shine at the Moscow stage of the Grand Slam
The 2009 world champions, the Germans Julius Brink - Jonas Reckermann, and multiple winners of the final standings of the World Tour, the Brazilians Juliana - Larissa (pictured) , won the Moscow stage of the Grand Slam series, held in Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill.The achievements of the Russians turned out to be very modest. The country's best couple, 2007 world vice-champions Igor Kolodinsky and Dmitry Barsuk limited themselves to reaching the 1/8 finals - this is the second round of the playoffs. The same result was shown by Yuri Bogatov and Sergei Prokopyev, who were recently brought together into one tandem. In the women's first round of the knockout tournament, Anastasia Vasina - Galina Boyko and Natalya Uryadova - Svetlana Popova completed their performances.
If last year the stage on Poklonnaya Gora took place during the week during which almost tropical rain poured incessantly, now the weather was ideal, classic “beach weather”. Plus 30 degrees, light wind, not disturbing the players, bright sun. That is, all the attributes of this beautiful sport were present. Given the overall high level of organization on the part of the tournament organizers, the only disappointment was the mediocre performance of the Russian teams. The lack of success in the international arena this season is the missing link in the popularization of beach will in Russia. There is attention from local authorities, the calendar of domestic competitions has become denser, tournaments are actively covered in the media, but we are clearly waiting for prizes in competitions at the world and continental levels.
Kolodinsky and Barsuk were twice classified fifth in seven FIVB tournaments this year, and lower in other cases. In Moscow, at the group stage, they won all three matches, as the best team of their quartet, they passed the play-off round, and then were defeated by the French brothers Andy and Kevin Se - 19:21, 16:21. Wild card holders Prokopyev and Bogatov played together for the first time at such a representative tournament and generally performed well. They have two wins in three matches of the preliminary stage, a successful game with the Czech tandem Benes - Kubala (losing 17:21, the opponents refused to continue the meeting). In the 1/8 finals everything was decided by one or two plays, unfortunately, not in our favor. Canadian tandem Vanhuizen - Redmann turned out to be a little luckier - 21:17, 19:21, 15:13.
In addition to two German pairs and a Brazilian, the Swiss Martin Lasiga and Jefferson Bellaguarda, who achieved bronze, also competed in this combination for the first season. Bellaguarda defended the colors of Brazil from 1993 to 2003, then disappeared from view for a long time, took Swiss citizenship and returned to the World Tour. In the main match, Brink - Reckermann and the Brazilians Emanuel - Ricardo competed. German beachgoers won their 27th (!) match victory in a row - 24:26, 21:18, 16:14. After the World Cup, the Germans won titles at two Grand Slam tournaments, and on the eve of the World Cup they became the best at the home stage of the continental series.
Russian pairs have a serious gap in class between two or three teams that are part of the national team and everyone else. Thus, of the four tandems that started from the qualifications, not one was able to advance to the next round of selection. According to the chairman of the VFW beach volleyball council, Andrei Gorbenko, the results of the work of the new coach of the national team, American Dane Selznik, will appear a little later, while the players get used to his training methods. This year can roughly be called the dating season.
Selzhnik promptly reacts to what is happening in the Russian championship. Based on the results of the past six stages, representatives of Obninsk Anna Vozakova - Ekaterina Khomyakova received a place in the main team of the country; in the winter, Uryadova - Popova will be involved in expanded training camps. On the other hand, the progress of the current Russian champions Maria Bratkova - Evgenia Ukolova has clearly slowed down. The winners of last year's European Youth Championship played 13 international matches in June and July and were defeated in 11. The girls' ratings are deteriorating, so at the very beginning of the tournaments they have to fight with very strong opponents. After all, in beach volleyball there are no draws: participants are distributed into pairs or groups solely on the basis of their current position in the world or European classification.
Boyko and Vasina perform much more consistently, and no failures have been observed. At the Moscow stage, they lost in the playoffs to multiple winners of the European Championship, Norwegians Nile Ann Hakedahl and Ingrid Thorlen - 21:17, 20:22, 9:15, although before that the Russians won two three-set matches with foreign rivals in the quartet. These girls of ours have a positive balance of official matches under the auspices of the FIVB and CEV in the 2009 season - 17--14. As for the decisive women's matches in Victory Park, Brazil was stronger than Germany in the semi-final micro-match. The South American women competed for gold among themselves. Juliana - Larissa got the better of Vanilda Leao - Renata Ribeiro - 21:18, 21:19.
This year Russia is hosting three major competitions. From August 13 to 16, the village of Yantarny, Kaliningrad region, will host the European Youth Championship in the senior age category (up to 23 years). The adult continental championship will take place in Sochi in September. According to Andrei Gorbenko, in 2010 our country will aspire to organize two stages of the “World Tour” - the traditional Moscow one, part of the “Grand Slam” series, and the usual one with “Open” status (presumably in Anapa). In addition, Russia will definitely join the fight for the right to become the host of the 2011 World Cup.
Home tournaments are important not only in terms of popularizing the sport, but also in terms of providing additional places in the main draw for our couples. It is not yet possible to take full advantage of these bonuses.
New rating of the “World Tour”-2009. Men. 1 (2). Julius Brink / Jonas Reckermann (Germany) - 4100 points (six tournaments). 2 (1). Alison Cerutti / Harley Marques -- 3920 (7). 3 (3). Emanuel Rego / Ricardo Santos (all - Brazil) - 3300 (6). 4 (9). David Klemperer / Eric Koreng (Germany) - 2240 (5). 5 (5). Dmitry Barsuk / Igor Kolodinsky (Russia) - 2140 (7). Women. 1 (1). Maria Antonelli / Talitha Antunes -- 4000 (7). 2 (2). Juliana / Larissa (all - Brazil) - 3920 (6). 3 (4). Sarah Goller / Laura Ludwig (Germany) -- 2960 (7). 4 (3). Jennifer Kessey / April Ross (USA) -- 2880 (5). 5--6 (5). Carolina Salgado / Maria Clara Salgado -- 2220 (7). 5--6 (9). Vanilda Leao / Renata (all - Brazil) - 2220 (5). ... 26 (26). Galina Boyko / Anastasia Vasina - 870 (6) ... 31 (29). Maria Bratkova / Evgenia Ukolova (all - Russia) - 610 (7). The place in the previous ranking is indicated in brackets.