The home team, second-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins of Latvia, won the gold medal Sunday at the FIVB men’s only three-star beach tournament in Jurmala, Latvia.
Samoilovs and Smedins followed up winning last week’s Moscow gold medal by defeating Kusti Nolvak and Mart Tiisaar of Estonia 23-21, 21-14 in the final, winning the $10,000 top prize without dropping a set.
Aliaksandr Dziadkou and Pavel Piatrushka of Belarus defeated Armin Dollinger and Eric Stadie of Germany 21-19, 21-16 for bronze.
The USA’s Billy Allen and Stafford Slick and Casey Patterson and Chase Budinger both finished fifth, with Bill Kolinske and Miles Evans finishing ninth.
Allen and Slick won two playoff matches, defeating No. 15 Jyrki Nurminen and Santeri Siren of Finland (21-17, 22-20) and upsetting No. 2 Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs of Latvia (25-23, 21-13) before falling to No. 12 Nolvak and Tiisaar (19-21, 21-15, 15-8).
Patterson and Budinger won their pool, earning a first round bye. They defeated No. 8 Mathias Berntsen and former Hawai’i player Hendrik Mol of Norway (15-21, 21-15, 15-13) but couldn’t get past Dziadkou and Piatrushka (19-21, 21-16, 15-13).
Evans and Kolinske defeated No. 29 Vid Jakopin and Tadej Bozenk of Slovakia, but were defeated by Nolvak and Tiisaar in the second round (21-15, 22-20).
Allen, Slick, Patterson, and Budinger earned $1,500 and 180 points each, while Evans and Kolinske won $1,000 and 150 points each.
The next three-star or better FIVB event is the World Tour finals in Rome September 4-8, where six American men’s teams (Allen and Slick, Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb, Theo Brunner and Reid Priddy, Budinger and Patterson, Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb, and Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena) are slated to compete.
American women scheduled for Rome include April Ross and Alix Klineman, Kerri Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat, Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil, Betsi Flint and Emily Day, Sara Hughes and Lauren Fendrick, and Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman.
