Russia
Russia finished the tournament with an immaculate record of four victories in as many matches and 11 points, while Estonia and Ukraine were tied with eight but Estonia got silver in the end as they had a better win-loss record. Ukraine settled for bronze to complete the podium.
On Sunday Ukraine opened the program for the last day of the competition by edging Latvia in straight sets (25-12, 25-15, and 25-22) before Estonia routed Azerbaijan with a similar score (25-17, 25-7, and 25-14).
Russia finished off their campaign in Kuldiga with a straight victory over hosts Latvia (25-16, 25-20, and 25-21) to win gold.
“Our goal was to win a medal here but this was not possible especially after the poor performance we showed in the first matches of the tournament” said Latvia head coach Jurijs Deveikus. “However, I am happy for we played a good match with Russia and did so in all facets of the game. We need to stabilize our performance; our problem is that we normally start very good but we can’t hold on until the end.”
“We are happy with the result and especially for we have achieved that we wanted” said Russia captain Loran Alekno, the son of Vladimir, the mentor of Zenit KAZAN. “Ukraine was the toughest team we got to play here.” His coach Alexander Karikov had the possibility to study Estonia and Latvia, two teams that Russia will play next April in the second round qualifier for the 2014 CEV Men U20 European Championship.
The best players awarded at the end of the tournament were Karlis Levinskis (LAT), Alexander Kiremov (RUS), Pavlo Liasenko (UKR), Ragnar Kalde (EST), and Vusal Rustamov (AZE).
The final standing of the tournament reads as follows:
1. Russia
2. Estonia
3. Ukraine
4. Latvia
5. Azerbaijan
At the EEVZA Women’s Junior Championship in Krosno, Poland, Latvia settled for fourth place after losing the bronze medal match to Estonia with the score of 1:3 (18-25, 15-25, 25-15, and 20-25). Poland won gold there while Russia got for silver.
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