Crowned as the Princesses of Europe just a week ago in Baden, Mariia Bocharova and Maria Voronina stood at the top of the podium once again on Sunday as they won the second stop of the Russian Tour in Sochi, at the same venue of this week’s upcoming four-star World Tour event.
The 19-year-old Bocharova and the 21-year Voronina, who won the U22 European Championship for the second time last Sunday, continued in great form over the week until they defeated Aleksandra Ganenko and Anastasiia Frolova 2-0 (21-16, 23-21) in the Sochi final.
Ironically, their gold medal match opponents will become their partners in just a few days as Bocharova will join forces with Ganenko for the World Tour event in Sochi while Voronina will be partners with Frolova in the same tournament.
The bronze medal match of the Russian Championship went to Alexandra Moiseeva and Ekaterina Syrtseva, who prevailed over Arina Mikhaylina and Elena Fedchuk in three sets (19-21, 22-20, 15-13).
The country’s top teams of Nadezda Makroguzova/Svetlana Kholomina and Ksenia Dabizha/Daria Rudykh didn’t appear in the tournament.
The men’s event in Sochi also didn’t feature two of its strongest teams as neither reigning world champions Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov nor Nikita Liamin and Taras Myskiv got to compete this weekend.
Their absences generated a good path for the silver medalists of the 2019 EuroBeachVolley, Konstantin Semenov and Ilya Leshukov, who took advantage of it to secure the title. The two are virtually guaranteed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and are expected to be medal contenders at the A1 CEV European Championships Vienna 2021, from August 11-15.
The 31-year-old Semenov, a Rio 2016 Olympic semifinalist and the 25-year-old Leshukov, who recently won a silver medal in the last of the three World Tour events played in Cancun, Mexico, won the tournament on the Southern coast of their country after they defeated Ruslan Bykanov and Alexander Likholetov 2-0 (21-14, 22-20).
The bronze medal of the second tournament of Russia’s national season went to Dmitrii Veretiuk and Igor Velichko, who downed Nikita Evert and Nikolay Chukhnenkov 2-0 (21-15, 21-16).
The Russian national season started in March, with an indoor event in Arkhangelsk. The third of the 12 tournaments scheduled to happen in 2021 will be played in Magnitogorsk from June 9-13.
