Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs are slowly climbing their way to the top of the Latvian Tour. After finishing third and second in the first two events of the season, the World Tour regulars finally stepped at the top of the podium this weekend as they won the third stop of the Tour in Saulkrasti.
Plavins and Tocs, who are already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics after they won last year’s Qualifier in China, also got sweet revenge against training partners and local rivals Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins, who had denied them the gold medals in Jurmala last weekend.
This time Plavins, a London 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, and Tocs came out on top in the Latvian Derby defeating Samoilovs and Smedins in straight sets (21-17, 21-17) in Saulkrasti.
“Our coach (Samoilovs’ father Genadijs) remembered us that we lost the tournament in Jurmala because we made a lot of mistakes and that we had to change that this time,” Plavins, who was awarded as the best player in the tournament, remarked. “Edgars had a great time and the fans were amazing in supporting us. Last year we finished fourth here and I’m glad we didn’t disappoint them this time.”
The youngest Samoilovs brother, Mihails, finished third in the tournament after partner Alenksandrs Solovejs downed Estonians Dimitriy Korotkov and Timo Lohmus in three sets (18-21, 21-19, 15-9).
The Latvian Tour will be off next weekend before it returns in Daugavpils from August 8-9 with men and women hitting the sand.
Kantor/Rudol and Wojtasik/Kociolek winners in Poland
The weekend also had beach volleyball action in Poland with the traditional Plaza Gotyku tournament in Torun. Kinga Wojtasik (formerly Kolosinska) and Katarzyna Kociolek were the winners among the women while Piotr Kantor and Maciej Rudol triumphed in the men’s tournament.
Wojtasik and Kociolek, the silver medalists of last year’s European Championships, downed Monika Brzostek and Aleksandra Gromadowska in straight sets (21-18, 21-15). Czechs Michala Kvapilová and Michaela Kubicková finished third in the tournament.
The men’s event saw a handful of different formations as the country’s top defenders Bartosz Losiak and Grzegorz Fijalek didn’t compete. Losiak’s regular partner Kantor picked up 2014 Under-23 world champion Rudol and took the team to the title after a two-set victory (22-20, 21-12) over Michal Kadziola and Marcin Ociepski. Bryl, who won three Beach Major Series medals with Fijalek in the last two years, joined Mikolaj Miszczuk to finish third.
The Polish National Tour season officially starts next weekend at Kolobrzeg.
