Cyprus And
San Marino To Battle For Gold On The Beach
LIMASSOL, 4 June 2009
- Cyprus and San Marino will meet to decide who will
take the gold medal in the men’s beach volleyball final
after both teams won their semifinal games on Thursday.
In the first semifinal, George Platritis and Paris
Christofi defeated Monaco’s outfit of Frank Kopcevic and
Tomas Widiez after a tie break decider. The Cypriot duo
had lost the first set 21-18 but responded in the second
set to win 21-11. Backed by a capacity crowd of home
supporters, they delivered again in the third and
deciding set winning 15-6 in a match which lasted 50
minutes.
Cyprus
will now meet San Marino twins Francesco and Alfredo
Tabarini in the final (18:00) after the two brothers
overcame Andorra and Xavier Folguera Estruga and
Christian Salvador Campillo in the other semifinal 2-0
(21-19, 29-27).
Cyprus had previously beaten the Tabarini twins 2-0 in
the group stage and are again favourites to take the
gold in Friday’s final. Andorra and Monaco will battle
it out for third place and the bronze medal on the same
day.
Meanwhile Cyprus’ 100% record in the women’s event
continued on Thursday with victory over Monaco. Manolina
Konstantinou and Mariotta Aggelopoulou defeated Magalie
Muratore and Caroline Van Klaveren 2-0 (21-18, 21-18)
but the biggest drama came in the other game between
Liechtenstein and Iceland. Liechtenstein’s 2-1 (9-21,
21-19, 15-9) victory over the Icelanders means that they
have made it through to the last four.
Elsewhere, Luxembourg easily beat Andorra 2-0 (21-9,
21-9) in 25 minutes.
Cyprus, who are coached by Manoli Roumelioti, will now
take on Liechtenstein’s Bettina Mähr and Petra Walser in
the semifinal on Friday morning (9:00) for a place in
the final which has been scheduled for 16:30. The losing
semifinalists will meet in the third place match to
decide who takes the bronze medal.
PC/JL
