New Year’s Volleyball Festival
After three days of play, 400 matches had been held on 20 courts in eight Sports Halls across the city. A total of 128 teams took part, coming from Serbia, Russia, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and FYR Macedonia. On the last day of the tournament, the semifinals, final match and bronze medal match were played. Prizes were presented to the best male and female players.
Among the female “pioneers”, the winning team was “Vrbas”, who defeated “Blok Aut” in the final match 2-0 (25-21, 25-16). In the match for third place, “Cemp 07” beat “Prvi Tempo” 2-0. Marina Vitas from “Vrbas” was named the Best Player in the competition of female “pioneers”.
Among the male “pioneers”, the winners are “Železnicar”, who defeated “As” in the final match 2-0 (25-16, 25-19). The third place went to “Spartak Ljig” who beat “Futog” 2-0 (25-22, 25-19). Marko Avramovic, player of “Železnicar”, was named the Best Player of the tournament in the category of male “pioneers”.
In the youth girls’ competition, “Vojvodina” from Novi Sad beat “Ruma” in the final 2-1 (23-25, 25-18, 15-9). The third sport went to “Iton Srem Tempo” from Sremska Mitrovica, who defeated “Klek” in the consolation match 2-0 (25-22, 25-19). Marija Vujnovic from “Vojvodina” was named the Best Player of the tournament in the youth girls’ competition.
“Vojvodina NS Seme” triumphed in the youth boys’ competition after defeating “As” in the final 2-1 (25-12, 19-25, 15-5). In the match for the consolation prize, “Srem Iton” from Sremska Mitrovica beat “Spartak Ljig” 2-1 (15-25, 25-14, 15-11). Nedjeljko Radovic from “Vojvodina NS Seme” was named the Best Player of the tournament in the youth boys’ category, and the prize was presented to him by Mr. Aleksandar Boricic, president of the Volleyball Federation of Serbia and FIVB executive vice-president.
“The Volleyball Federation of Serbia supported the idea for this project, carried out by the Volleyball Federation of Vojvodina, right from the beginning,” Boricic said. “We will continue to do so in the future because this is an excellent example of good organisation and work by the people in our sport. All together, we should make huge effort to gather more participants next year so the Festival can get a significant place in the CEV calendar. Then we can talk about some kind of unofficial European Championship for the younger categories in Novi Sad.”
The best male and female players, in addition to the trophy, received a pair of sneakers – a gift from one of the sponsors of the tournament.
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