First EEVZA U-18 Championship comes to a close with Russian triumph

The last matches of the round-robin were played on Wednesday morning to determine the line-up for the final matches. After the withdrawal of the Estonian team from the men’s competition due to injury, both grids were composed of only five teams. Two Latvian pairs – Trae/Abolinya and Buyvids/Andersons – could finally not make it to the finals.
The medals were contested in the afternoon. Another pair from Latvia, Tetere/Lece, deprived the women’s tournament from an all-Russian podium. Yakovleva/Hropachenko – originally from St. Petersburg - hadn't a decent resistance to their Baltic rivals.
In the men’s division, the third Russian pair was out, so young duos from Belarus and Latvia did compete for the bronze medal. The match between Esaulenka/Dedkov and Pekmanis/Natrins turned out to be quite interesting. The athletes stayed on the centre court for nearly an hour and a tie-break was needed to identify the winner which was snatched by the Belarusians - 16:14.
Teams from Russia did star in both finals, so the local spectators supported very equally all competitors. Special surprises did not happen and the winners of the round-robin took victories in the tournament. Ekaterina Narmania and Ksenia Poltoranina, as well as Vyacheslav Andrianov together with Vasily Kiriyenko, had to sweat in the first sets of their matches (26:24 and 22:20 for the girls and boys respectively), and the second set was also taken by the favorites - 21:17 and 21:19. Dabija/Sorokina and Korovka/Zhirkov are leaving Kaliningrad with silver medals.
“In this tournament we have played together with Katya for the first time ever. As you can see, the result is just perfect! It is always very nice to win, especially at home. We are still young and have time to progress. We will try to win each match and every tournament. Thanks to all who organized this event, everything was wonderful” commented on her success Ksenia Poltoranina.
“It's hard to convey our feelings at the moment - we are the winners! We wanted to win this event at home, so now we are very happy. The final game was very tough and also the first game against Korovka and Zhirkov in the round-robin. Plus today it was pretty hot, but we could make it, we are insanely happy! ", - said immediately after the final game Vyacheslav Andrianov and Vasily Kiriyenko.
The tournament ended with the awarding ceremony, where the winners received the cups, medals and diplomas, and all participants got souvenirs from the local organizers.