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Top FIVB World Tour team withdraws from smart Hamburg Major
- Updated: June 6, 2016
Hamburg, Germany, June 6, 2016 – Main Draw withdrawals due to injury happen all the time on the FIVB World Tour, but when the top-ranked pair departs from one of the season’s biggest events, it is news.
Poland’s 24-year old sensations Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak withdrew here Monday from the US$800,000 smart Hamburg Major as the pair are currently No. 1 on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour ranking list with 4,040 points for their 11 international participations since October 2015 highlighted by four podium placements and a gold medal finish at mid-March’s Rio Grand Slam on Copacabana.
A right thumb injury has sidelined Losiak for this week’s stop after playing last week at the European Championships in Switzerland where the Poles placed ninth, but forfeited their second-round elimination match to eventual silver medal winners Konstantin Semenov/Viacheslav Krasilnikov of Russia after winning their pool.
The withdrawal will not hurt Kantor and Losiak’s bid for a berth in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as the Poles currently rank No. 8 on the qualifying list with 5,180 points for the best 12 international finishes since April 2015. Fifteen pairs from the FIVB World Tour qualify for the Copacabana quadrennial, excluding Brazilians, with a maximum of two pairs per country.
In their last FIVB World Tour stop in Russia, Kantor and Losiak gathered their second Grand Slam medal of the season by defeating Americans Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson in a three-set third-place match. Kantor labored in the bronze finale with a right knee injury.
“It has been a long and tough season,” said Losiak after the bronze medal match in Moscow. “Since April 2015, we have competed in 24 FIVB events and three European tournaments. Even though we are young, it has been a long process to reach Rio. We still have three more events ahead of us before we get a break. We are tired and looking forward to a break.”
After taking this week off and avoiding the “fanfare” of …
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