The first stage of the Latvian championship “ERGO Open 2020”, as usual in recent years, will take place in Ventspils. Both men’s and women’s duos will take part in this stage. This is an excellent season for Latvian fans, because all the strongest Latvian beach volleyball players, including two Olympic pairs, spend it in Latvia, participating in the Latvian championship competition. 34 teams have applied for the first stage of the championship in the men’s competition, but 21 in the women’s competition.
The main competition of the men’s tournament already includes 12 teams, but in the other qualifying tournament, which will take place on Friday, there will be four vacancies in the main tournament. In the competition with the first two numbers, the greatest Latvian duos Mārtiņš Pļaviņš / Edgars Točs and Aleksandrs Samoilovs / Jānis Šmēdiņš were sown. The first three of the quartet last weekend for the Ventspils tournament warmed up in the Estonian championship (Pļaviņš / Točs triumphed in it), but Jānis decided to start the season with the Ventspils tournament.
Aleksandrs Solovejs and Mihails Samoilovs, as well as Lithuanians Patrikas Stankevičius and Audrius Knašas, who have already seen us, follow among the two main favorite pairs of the tournament. This is the only foreign duo that is included in the main tournament without participating in the qualification, while two more Lithuanian teams and one Estonian will have to fight for such a right.
A large number of participants – 21 teams – have also applied for the Ventspils stage of the ladies’ tournament. Such a number of duets in the stages of the Latvian championship has not been long, which is of course gratifying. Undoubted favorites of the tournament are the Latvian Olympic women’s team Tīna Graudiņa and Anastasija Kravčenoka, who should match their strengths with Aneta Namika and Varvara Brailko in the final, but the competition for places on the podium will be intense.
The competition in the Latvian team will definitely consist of three Lithuanian and two Estonian teams. It should be reminded that in the ladies’ tournament a year ago Namiķe / Brailko gave way to Lithuanians Vītene Vitauskaite / Urte Andrukaite in the final.
The fights at the Ventspils beach volleyball stadium will start on Friday, when at 17.00 is the start of the qualifying tournament for men’s duets. The start of the ladies’ qualification will set the tone for the Ventspils stage on Saturday morning, which will start at 9.00. After the end of the women’s qualification tournament (at 11.00) we are planning a tournament opening ceremony.
After the show game, everything will start for real. 16 duos in each gender will start the fight for the titles of the Ventspils stage of the Latvian championship “ERGO Open 2020”. Everything will end on Sunday when, at 16.00 is the final of the tournament for ladies, but an hour later also a fight for gold for men.
As in the whole country, due to the health situation, there will be restrictions for spectators, but that is why their support is especially needed for all players who are hungry for volleyball and emotions after a break caused by a coronavirus. In addition, various awards have been received by the general sponsor of the championship – the insurance company ERGO.
ERGO OPEN 2020 Ventspils stage calendar:
July 3 from 17.00 – qualifying games;
July 4 from 9.00 – qualification games, opening, main tournament games;
July 5 from 10.00 – 1/4 finals and 1/2 finals games (live Sportacentrs.com TV);
July 5 from 14.00 – games about places (live LTV7).
More information about ERGO OPEN 2020 tournaments: HERE
The Latvian beach volleyball championship is financially supported by Ventspils City Municipality!
In order to promote an active lifestyle and expand sports opportunities, as well as responding to the growing interest, nine free-access beach volleyball courts are currently available in Ventspils.
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