Russia tops prelims of 2011 CEV Boys’ Youth European Championship
The first preliminary round of the 2011 CEV Boys’ Youth European Championship rounded off on Friday, April 22 and Russia emerged as the top team of Pool I.
The Russian squad was accompanied by teams from France, Spain, Belgium, Ukraine and Finland in Pool I. Since the start of the championship on Saturday, April 16, the Russian ‘army’ rocked the podium with spectacular performances and climbed up the top rank
at the end of prelims.
The beautiful city of Ankara in Turkey is the host of this European campaign. The tournament has entered the final round and it will complete its run on April 24.
Each team appeared in five pool play matches in the preliminary round. Russia opened the championship by taking on Finland on last Saturday. The wonderfully trained group of Russian boys put up a great team effort and heavily influenced the Finnish team.
The advantage of height and better physique enabled Russia to dominate the opponents. The match spanned over three set and lasted for 1.5 hours. Russia finished with the final score of 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, and 25-19). The convincing performance in opening
match confirmed their ambition for victory.
In the next match, pumped-up Russian team was challenged by Spain, which already lost their first match. Spanish team was considered slightly up than the underdogs but they were not a threat for Russians anyway.
Russia continued with success and did not allow Spaniards to stay in their way. The Bestepe Sports Hall in Ankara experienced a great vibe of great volleyball by Russian team. Spain dropped all three sets of the match and acknowledged the better status of
Russia. The final conclusion struck the block in 56th minute of the game and Russia marched away with a win.
Russia maintained its winning streak and successfully extended the lead to 3-0 in the third match. It was another scintillating performance by Russians against Team Belgium. Russia had a perfect combination of spikers and blockers in the team.
On top of it, the success in previous two matches had given them a great boost. Well, on the other hand, Belgium was constantly down with bad results in last two days. They failed to cope with the power of strong Russian boys and gave in easily. Russia added
another victory to their count and remained successful team of Pool I of the 2011 CEV Boys’ Youth European Championship.
The Russian team booked the semi-final slot with success in their fourth consecutive match. The fourth match of the preliminary round was played after one-day break, which gave a little time to the athletes to relax.
This time around, Russia saw off Ukrainian team. The opponents were strongly labelled as underdogs and Russia did not take long to hold them off for a 3-0 victory. Nonetheless, Ukrainian team put up a great effort in second set, when the score soared up
with a close gap. On the whole, Russia proved better and clinched success.
Following four consecutive victories and the semi-final berth, the Russian team slowed down. They faced the defending champion France in the last match of the round. Russia was content but France was deeply in distress after losing their last match to Spain.
It was really important match for France. However, it was a real test of abilities for both teams. French team pulled off success in the first two sets of match, while Russia raised head in the third set.
After dropping the third set, France bounced back in the game in fourth set and claimed match victory. Russia lost the match but yet they finished in the top slot. France followed them up in the second slot and also qualified for semi-final from Pool I.
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