All-European Showdown Marks Kish Island Semifinals

Kish Island, Iran, February 23, 2018 – Latvia’s Martins Plavins/Edgars Tocs, Austria’s Julian Horl/Tobias Winter, Poland’s Mariusz Prudel/Jakub Szalankiewicz and Germany’s Alexander Walkenhorst/Sven Winter have forged an all-European final four showdown in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour MICA Mall Kish Island 3-star after their respective quarterfinal victories at the Kish Marine Recreation Sports Complex on Friday.

The Hague gold medallists and top seeds Plavins/Tocs have made it to their second straight FIVB World Tour final four, following their 2-0 (21-11, 21-16) quarterfinal win over Lithuania’s Arnas Rumsevicius/Lukas Kasdailis.

The third-seeded Prudel/Szalankiewicz routed Italy’s Alex Ranghieri/Marco Caminati 2-0 (21-13, 21-17). The pair will be the sixth team from their country to reach a World Tour final four.

Horl/Winter secured a semifinal spot by beating compatriots Christoph Dressler/Robin Seidl 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) to record Austria’s 19th semifinal appearance in FIVB World Tour history, while Walkenhorst/Winter kept their winning momentum by defeating Austria’s Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz 2-0 (21-18, 21-14).

Plavins/Tocs will face Horl/Winter in the first semifinal at 09:00 local time, then Prudel/Szalankiewicz will play Walkenhorst/Winter at 10:00.