Fourth place is a great result, although it’s probably a bit disappointing because of the missed opportunity to grab some historic medals.
The Lithuanians were very close to securing medals in the semifinals, where they lost to the Italians Valentina Gottardi and Marta Menegatti 1-2 (21:17, 19:21, 18:20) after a rare beauty fight.
Lithuanian beach volleyball players, who showed fantastic form, won the first set and fought to the end in the second as well. However, in the fourth tournament according to the division, the Italians managed to equalize the result. In the dramatic third set, the volleyball players demonstrated an impressive and self-sacrificing game, worthy of an emotional reaction from both the commentators and the spectators gathered in large numbers in The Hague.
Lithuanian athletes had a couple of opportunities to win a ticket to the semi-finals with a point, but they did not use them. Later, the Italian women got such opportunities, until finally they managed to use one of them.
In the battle for bronze, M. Paulikienė and A. Raupelytė were waiting for a confrontation with the Swiss Esmee Bobner and Zoe Verge-Depre, who took fifth place at the Paris Olympic Games.
Disappointingly, the Lithuanians, who lost the first set, allowed their opponents to accelerate and had to concede the advantage of the Swiss 0-2 (20:22, 14:21).
M. Paulikiene and A. Raupelyte received 680 world ranking points for the fourth place in the European Championship. Last year, she was fifth in the European Championships.
The German Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann became European champions. V. Gottardi and M. Menegatti beat her in the final 2-0 (21:17, 21:18).
The prize fund of the European Beach Volleyball Championship consists of 200 thousand. US dollars.
2024-08-17 22:02:02