Beachvolleyball-EM
The beach volleyball championship on Vienna’s Danube Island continues without Austrian women. Dorina and Ronja Klinger were also eliminated in the intermediate round on Thursday. The Austrian number one duo lost 2-0 to the reigning European champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova from Latvia.
03.08.2023 12.00
Online since yesterday, 12.00 p.m. (Update: yesterday, 15.08 p.m.)
Franziska Friedl/Katharina Schützenhofer and Eva Freiberger/Katharina Holzer failed in the preliminary round on Wednesday. The Klinger sisters gave away a 15:11 lead on center court against the seventh-seeded Baltinnen in the first set and still fell behind.
In the second round, Graudina/Samoilova had the game under control and used their second match point. They are in the round of 16. “We knew it was a very difficult draw, you can’t get a much better team in this elimination round,” said Dorina after the game.
Beach volleyball players survive group stage
No Austrian women’s duo reached the round of 16 at the Beach Volleyball Championships in Vienna. For the men, Alexander Horst/Julian Hörl and Philipp Seidl/Moritz Pristauz survived the group phase on Thursday.
“We started really well in the first set and then gave it a bit out of hand ourselves. That tipped the momentum and then nothing really worked in the second set,” said the 26-year-old.
Her 23-year-old sister Ronja shed tears after the match. But the focus was quickly turned to the future. The red-white-red duo now have their sights set on qualifying for the World Cup in Mexico in October. “That would be our season highlight, our first World Cup ever,” said Dorina Klinger.
APA/Eva Manhart In the end, the Klinger sisters were in a lost position against the defending champions
Two victories for ÖVV men
In the men’s group stage, there were two wins for the six red-white-red teams on Thursday. The top domestic pairing Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst, ranked number eight, defeated their compatriots Laurenz Leitner/Paul Pascariuc 2:1. Robin Seidl/Moritz Pristauz also defeated the Poles Bartosz Losiak/Maciej Rudol 2:1.
Mathias Seiser/Christoph Dressler (30) narrowly missed a sensation. The duo, who only made it into the field of participants after several cancellations, brought the Swedish title defenders David Ahman/Jonatan Hellvig (3) to the brink of defeat in a 1-2 draw. In the decisive set, the Austrians led 11:9, before the favorites from Sweden prevailed with 15:13.
Philipp Waller and Martin Ermacora also narrowly lost 1:2 against the number four of the tournament, the French Youssef Krou/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat. Timo Hammarberg/Tim Berger lost 2-0 to Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler from Germany.