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Austrian volleyball pairing Clemens Doppler and Matthias Mellitzer grabbed silver at the European Beach Volleyball Championships in Berlin, Germany, at the weekend. It was hard-earned precious metal, as Doppler reveals in his blog…
Three weeks before the European Championships, we hadn't even yet qualified for the tournament in Berlin. By grabbing fifth place in Klagenfurt [Austria], we were suddenly all set. Of course, we were still a long way from winning a European Championship, but we were surprised to be going, so we came with the attitude that none of us had expected it and we had nothing to lose – and ranking points to gain.
Our qualifying group was also really strong, and any teams that made it through would at least reach the quarter-finals.
We lost the first game to the Spaniards Lario and Mesa. The Germans Klemperer and Koreng took set number one, but we recovered to win in three sets. Against the Belgians, we again had to go to a third set, but we won and progressed as the group winners.
In the fourth round, again against two Germans in Dollinger/Windscheif, many people thought that we effectively had a bye, which was complete nonsense. The boys were already at number five this year and we had no chance in the first set. Then the partnership clicked and we won the next two.
In the quarter-finals against the Latvians Samoylov and Sorokin, who had beaten the runaway favourites Brink and Reckermann, we had to go three sets again! In the semi-final we met our group opponents from Spain again. We went into the game as aggressivgely as we had when the overall group win was at stake. It was the only game we decided in two sets.
'The final was probably the craziest game we've ever been involved with'
In the final, we met the two-time and reigning European Champions from the Netherlands, Nummerdor and Schuil. It was a mad and crazy match. The first set went pretty quickly to the Dutch. In the second, we found a lot of passion and produced even more of a fightback. The 5,000 spectators picked up on this and suddenly the atmosphere around the court was electric.
We held off four match points, with the German fans seeming increasingly on our side as we showed our determination. In set two, we secured a tiebreak extension, but despite match points in the final set, we couldn’t take it and the final result went against us.
Such a narrow defeat is naturally disappointing since we had a chance to win, but hey, we are European finalists and won the silver medal! That doesn’t sound bad, does it? Klagenfurt was no flash in the pan, and we proved that here. We’ll be at the first tournament in 2011 in the main draw, which is extremely valuable. It also shows our hard work has more than paid off.
Our coach Marco Solustri went mad with joy, I have never seen him so emotional before. If we had won the title, I do not know what would have happened! The final was for him, and for me, probably the craziest game we've ever been involved with.
Overall, we have played more than seven and a half hours over four days. But the silver made a hard and long tournament worth all the effort.
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