Record Entries at VLY Beach Tour as Viana & Valavicius Claim Victory
A record 47 teams competed in Volleyball Ireland’s National Beach Tour at a sun kissed Dollymount Strand over the weekend.
Felipe Viana & Edgaras Valavicius claimed the top prize in the second VLY Beach Tour event of 2021. The Brazilian and Lithuanian pair defeated Ivo Texeira and Janusz Stolarek in a thrilling three set final which went to the wire (21-14, 18-21, 18-16), and leaves the second seeds frustrated with consecutive silver medal finishes.
The eventual champions cruised through the Pool stage before seeing off Antanas Capskis and Will Oshoke in the QFs. Their route to the final was helped by the disqualification of top seeds George Antal & Evgenni Menschikov who were ‘timed out’ in the quarter final stage, gifting 6th seeds Adrian Margol & Marcin Szklarek a route to the semis where Viana’s cute play and Valavicius’ power at the net was too much.
The Women’s 2* final ended in similar fashion with Miriam Gormally and Melissa Cheviron overcoming Giedre Guobyte and Eliska Cechova in another three set encounter. Cheviron, at her first tournament since transferring from Malta was a class above the field with accurate passing and fierce hitting proving too strong for the second seeds – who earlier dumped out the top seed sisters Paola and Mariana Rosas in the semi finals. The twins had to settle for bronze after seeing off Marie-Claire Sabogal & Simina Custura in the 3rd place playoff.
The Men’s 1* was won by Tomas Konopka & Jakub Wojciechowski overcoming debutants Chad Bell & Alex Emeribe in three sets. In fact, three set finals were the theme for the day when another new team of Spain’s Isabel Pla Diaz-Marta & Corinne Copreni had too much experience for Naas’ Grace Moloney & DVC’s Laura Connolly. The young pair were playing in only their third Beach Volleyball Competition after winning the Jnr title earlier in the week.
The VLY Beach Tour returns in two weeks in Galway, before the highly anticipated 3* event in Bettystown County Meath over the last weekend in August.
