The five-day, ninth edition of this world championship event was held in England for the second straight year and the first in the illuminating city of Blackpool. This year’s event was held at St. Chads Headland on the South Promenade in Blackpool. In Great Britain for this week’s world championship event for both men and women were 69 two-person beach teams (36 men, 33 women) representing 29 nations. Starting out strong with precise hitting, serving and aggressive defense on Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach Centre Court, Brzostek, 20 of Lodz, and Kolosinka 19, of Lublin, won the first gold medal for Poland in this world championship event by defeating the talented Dutch duo of Remmers, 20, and Stiekema, 19, who are both from The Hague 21-18, 17-21 and 15-11 in 52 minutes. Kolosinka, who helped give Poland its second women's medal in this event, was selected as the SWATCH Most Outstanding Women’s Player of the 2009 SWATCH FIVB Junior World Championships. After splitting the first sets in rather methodical fashion, the Polish pair came out swinging in the deciding third set, scoring the first two points as the closest the Dutch team go was at 2-1, 3-1 and 4-2. Brzostek/Kolosinka steadily pulled away with precision plays, building a five-point lead to 13-8 and after Remmers/Stiekema closed to 13-10, scored four of the last five points to earn their world championship. “I have been trying for a gold medal for several years and before today the best I was able to do was a bronze, but with big help from Kinga today we were both able to get the gold medal for ourselves and for Poland,” said Brzostek, who won the bronze medal last year in this event with another partner. “Throughout the tournament we were able to keep our focus on one match at a time and once we got to the championship match, I just thought that our defense was the difference in the match. Kinga and I were both able to make some really good stops during the match.” Both Poland and the Netherlands ended the tournament with 6-1 records and it was the sixth final four placements and fifth medal for the Dutch in this world championship. In the exciting women’s Bronze Medal match, Russia’s 19th-seeded Irina Chaika/Anna Vozakova came out strong, then held on before finally overcoming fifth-seeded Czech Republic’s Martina Bonnerova/Barbora Hermannova in three sets 21-12, 18-21 and 20-18 (overtime) in a 55-minute match. Chaika/Vozakova were at match point 14-12 in the third set when the Bonnerova/Hermannova scored three straight to go up 15-14 and it was tied all the way up to 18-8 before Vozakova scored on a kill down the middle and Chaika killed through Bonnerova’s block attempt to end the match. Russia has now earned three women’s medals in this event (one gold, one silver and one bronze) and for Chaika it is her third personal world championship medal as she has earned two medals at the SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championships, a bronze in 2008 in The Hague, Netherlands and the silver this year in Alanya with different partners. Chaika/Vozakova leave Blackpool with a 5-2 final record in the event while Bonnerova/Hermannova, who gave the Czech Republic its third final four appearance in the nine-year history of this event, also finish with a 5-2 record. In the Sunday morning women’s semifinals on Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach Centre Court, Poland’s Brzostek/Kolosinska defeated Russia’s Chaika/Vazakova 21-17 and 22-20 in 38 minutes and Netherland’s Remmers/Stiekema beat Czech Republic’s Bonnerova/Hermannova 21-14 and 21-13 in 33 minutes. The 2009 SWATCH FIVB Junior World Championships were produced by Beach Volleyball UK Ltd. of Dorset in association with Britain’s Northwest Regional Development Agency and Volleyball England. Additional event information is available at www.beach-volleyball.co.uk, www.fivb.org and www.volleyballengland.org. |
