Volleyball Update: 2010 SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championships- Polish Victory in Men’s squad
SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championship 2010 graced the beautiful city of Porto this season. The double-gender matches brought a lot of excitement and festivity to the city. A total of 88 teams including 46 women’s and 42 men’s teams, from all over the world, exhibited superb and memorable performances. It was a rocking scene for complete five days of the tournament.
The best men’s and women’s pairs came together to amaze the crowd with some outstanding performances of beach volleyball. The women’s side was totally dominated by the young American pair, Jane Croson and Summer Ross, who demonstrated an excellent game and took away the gold medal, while in the men’s category, teams from Poland, Russia, and Germany held the top three positions.
The Polish team which had the world’s best beach volleyball players, the fifth-seeded Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak, ruled the game and made their way to the final victory. They enjoyed the lovely Portuguese weather more than anyone else and took full advantage of the sunny seaside, to display a great game throughout the tournament.
The powerful athlete Piotr and Losiak came face-to-face with their first-line rivals, the 24th-seeded main and second-seeded qualification players, Maxim Anufriev and Artem Kucherenko of Russia in the centre court for the final combat on Sunday, 1st August 2010. The Polish duo was a bit shaky in the first set but they were able to take advantage in the next two sets and grabbed the gold at the 2010 SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championship.
The Sport TV Network of Portugal added more value to the tournament by broadcasting the matches live on TV.
The Polish started the game in a moderate way and tried to figure out the mood of the game. They lost the first set as the Russian duo was able to post 17-21 victory in the first set. However, Piotr and Losiak couldn’t digest the defeat in first set and came up with a change in strategy. As a result, the second set was more heated and full of fury. Both the sides put ultimate efforts to dominate the other side. The Russians had already won the first set and they had a higher level of confidence in the game.
Maxim and Kucherenko delivered very nice serves and hit powerful shots to over-come the Team-Poland but Piotr and Losiak did a great job in handling the difficult situation. They showed their exceptional skills and blocked the spear-shots with great temperament to save every possible point. The Polish duo remained consistent and poled a 21-19 victory in the second set.
The suspense and un-certainty was on high-stake in third set as it was the decisive round of the SWATCH FIVB U-19 Youth World Tournament’s final.
Both the teams were under immense pressure in the final round. The game started and both sides exhibited world-class performance. Nonetheless, the Polish team made their mark and defeated the Russian team by posting 15-11. Kantor and Losiak seized the gold medal and also set a record of 7-0 in the tournament.
They remained undefeated in the championship and outplayed teams from Portugal, France, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Russia, and also the other homeland Polish team.
The victorious pair expressed their delight after the final match. Losiak said that they were very excited to win the gold medal. There were very good teams in the SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championship but they made a difference and it was sort of un-real for them. Especially on the final day, the weather changed and wind was blowing, which created a bit problem. Losiak added that they were worried about the windy conditions but in the end, they managed to restore their confidence and won the gold-medal.
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