2024-03-03 22:29:28
The national team of Bulgaria for men under 20 years finished in fourth place in the debut for the age European Snow Volleyball Championship, but also the first participation in the history of the championship of the Old Continent. The competition was held in the Georgian winter resort of Bakurani under the auspices of the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV).
Our team consisting of Martin Pashov, Konstantin Kyuchukov and Gavrail Tsepenishev reached the battle for the medals after two wins and one loss in the first two days.
“In the morning we greeted each other with the holiday – March 3. Everyone connected the national holiday with today’s matches and were set to play to their maximum potential,” the boys’ coach and leader of the Bulgarian delegation, Toshko Stoyanov, told the official website of the Bulgarian Football Federation.
The “Tricolor” first played a semi-final, which they lost to the favorite Poland with 0:2 (13-15, 11-15). The Poles also triumphed with the title, after they prevailed 2:0 over the Czech Republic in the final, without losing the championship.
“Poland is an extremely well-prepared team, very powerful in attack and organized. They absolutely crushed the Czechs in the final and deservedly became champions – commented Stoyanov. – In our match we started with a festive mood and with good performances in defense and attack. The difference of only It was 1-2 points until almost the end.At 13:11 right after our break we gave away an easy point and they took the game.
The second game was almost a repeat of the first, with the difference that the Poles’ game became more organized. We strengthened the blocking and took out difficult balls in defense, but we almost didn’t get to push them more decisively in attack. The game ended in their favor but the boys felt proud that they fought and that they played as equals to this machine team.”
In the dispute for the bronze medals, we went against Turkey 1, where in an extremely competitive battle we almost fell short and lost 0:2 (13-15, 20-22). The meeting lasted 30 minutes.
“For the second match, the setting in the team to fight for a medal was very definite and they entered the match extremely emotional, with a huge desire to win. The match moved evenly with the Turkey 1 team, which in the last two years has almost always been in the top 4 of men’s european tours!In this first game, after some lucky plays at the very end of the game, the Turks won, which was pure luck.
But in the second game, our boys went like soldiers! Without fear, with many smart plays and a definite initiative, they led the game to 12 points. Again, with luck, the Turks tied us at the 15th point, and there the fighting nature of our team is evident. We were able to take the lead at the very end and were on the verge of tying the games when a foul call stole the game. So after a very emotional turn and over 20 game points, the medals slipped away from us!”
Our ladies in the team Alara Izetova, Gabriela Radeva and Eriya Rashkova finished in eighth place after losing the last match 0:2 (12-15, 9-15) to Romania.
“The women again played a contested match against one of the new forces in snow volleyball – Romania. They felt the joy of their good performances, and the tension from the previous days was gone… They almost missed achieving another victory,” concluded Stoyanov, who is the chairman of the Committee on Snow Volleyball at the BFA.
The Bulgarian national team was also supported by the president of the federation Lubomir Ganev at the European Championship for men and women under 20 years of age.