Beach volleyball
Austria’s men’s duos will be competing in the final tournament of the European Nations Cup in beach volleyball starting Thursday in Jurmala, Latvia, with a weakened squad. Martin Ermacora and Robin Seidl are injured. Their partners Philipp Waller and Moritz Pristauz therefore had to re-plan.
12.06.2024 16.00
Online since today, 4 p.m.
They will now compete with Timo Hammarberg and Christoph Dressler for the tournament victory needed to secure an Olympic ticket. In the women’s competition, Dorina and Ronja Klinger as well as Katharina Schützenhöfer and Lena Plesiutschnig will try their luck.
Despite the less than ideal starting position, men’s national team coach Martin Olejnak believes they will win the tournament. “To get a second Olympic ticket for Austria, we have to win five international matches in four days, and that is our goal,” he said. His team will face Portugal and Spain in the group phase, while the women of the Austrian Volleyball Association (ÖVV) will play against Slovenia and Italy.
Golden Set at 1:1 after two games
The duels between the twelve nations will be played in at least two matches. If the score is 1:1, a golden set will be played, for which the line-up can be freely chosen. The games will be played in four groups of three, with the best two in each pool advancing to the quarter-finals. Only the tournament winners for women and men will secure a place at the Olympic Games on Sunday.
Pristauz was optimistic: “Starting with newly assembled teams will definitely be a challenge, but also an exciting one that I would like to face. My goal is to do my best to get the Olympic ticket for Austria, no matter what the composition.”
The only Austrian starting place for the Olympics so far was secured by Alexander Horst and Julian Hörl via the Pro Tour rankings in the last edition. Like all other teams that qualified for the Summer Games in Paris in this way, they are not eligible to play in the Nations Cup.
