The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : Russia, Germany claim titles

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Russia, Germany claim titles

Sports Reporter

CHENNAI: Russia's Alexander Likholetov & Evgeniy Romashkin and Germany's Jana Kohler & Kira Walkenhorst won the men's and women's titles at the FIVB Chennai Challenger beach volleyball tournament here on Saturday. Likholetov & Romashkin held their nerve better than the Turkish opponents Selcuk Sekercei & Volkan Gogtepe in a close men's final, pulling away late in both sets to win 21-18, 21-18.

Ahead of the encounter, the game-changing contest was likely to be how the Turks dealt with the physical presence and unforgiving blocking of the 6'9” Likholetov. They seemed to cope without any trouble at first, pulling away into a 6-1 lead with Gogtepe bringing off his trademark dinks with ease. But once Romashkin's positioning and reflexes began to exert their influence at the back, the Russians regrouped.

Whatever got past Likholetov couldn't beat Romashkin's scurrying and diving at the back. By the next side-switch, the score was seven-all. The two teams inched on after that, and reached 15-all before the Russians pulled away from 16-all, a blocked winner from Likholetov giving them the set 21-18. The script barely deviated an inch in the second set. The Turks cracked under pressure – a net touch from Sekercei at 15-18 and a netted serve from Gogtepe gave the Russians set point. Likholetov ended with a touch of finesse, curling one over the net at an acute angle to beat the diving Gogtepe.

All-German

The women's final was an all-German affair, pitting third seeds Kohler & Walkenhorst against Stefanie Hutterman & Anni Schumacher. The Kohler-Walkenhorst duo clearly looked the better team apart from a few jittery moments in the first set, and won 22-20, 21-15.

Walkenhorst's blocking was the highlight of the first set initially – the 18-year-old never committed herself too early, and left it to her positioning and reflexes to spring lightly and parry Huttermann and Schumacher's attempted kills.

The results:

Finals: Men: Likholetov-Romashkin (Rus) bt Sekercei-Gogtepe (Tur) 21-18, 21-18.

Women: Kohler-Walkenhorst (Ger) bt Huttermann-Schumacher (Ger) 22-20, 21-15.

Semifinals: Women: Köhler-Walkenhorst (Ger) bt Júlia-Fabi (Bra) 21-18, 21-12; Hüttermann-Schumacher (Ger) bt Ivy-Rutledge (USA) 21-16, 21-13.

Men: Likholetov-Romashkin (Rus) bt Morrison-Zimet (USA) 21-16, 15-21, 15-13 .

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