Israel and Romania are through to the next round of the men’s Continental Cup qualifiers and the women’s teams of Turkey and Latvia also kept their chances of reaching the Rio 2016 Olympics following a tournament played in Malta recently under the auspices of the European federation.
The men’s final at Golden Bay saw Israel beating Romania 2-0 as Faiga and Hillman never allowed their opponents to settle down, winning the first set 21-15.
Moskovits/Todoran tried to put some pressure on their opponents but with Hillman in good form, the Israeli boys stepped up a gear to complete victory with the second set won 21-9.
The first set of the second game was quite close with Sanderovic/Ohana maintaining a narrow lead throughout. Thanks to some good blocks, particularly from Ohana, the Israeli pair went on to beat Holhos/Abrudan 21-15.
The Romania pair started the second set more brightly taking a 3-0 lead. However, Sanderovic and Ohana upped their levels to win the second set 21-16.
Both teams stayed in contention for a slot in the Rio Olympics tournament for men in 2016.
In the opening match from the women’s final, Latvia’s Sorokina/Jursone were determined not to give anything away to their Turkish opponents and edged their way to win the first set 21-19.
However, Turkey’s Fatma/Atasoy hit back strongly to win the second set 21-11 to level the series.
Fatma and Atasoy kept up the pace and clinched the third set 15-10 to complete the comeback.
The opening stages of the second match were quite balanced but Bahanur and Ceren then stepped up a gear to win the set 21-13 and put Turkey in front.
Ozolina/Lece started the second set more aggressively but Bahanur/Ceren were not impressed and closed the game 21-18 in their favour to seal first place for Turkey.
Malta fielded a team in the women’s tournament.
Alison Borg and Gertrude Zarb were in Team A and Maria Demicoli and Daniela Bonnici in Team B.
In the group qualifiers, the Maltese girls lost to Bosnia on a golden game before going down to eventual winners Turkey.