Mihails Samoilovs wants to follow his brother’s footsteps at the U19

Larnaka, Cyprus, July 27, 2016 – With two wins in qualification on Wednesday Latvia’s Mihails Samoilovs and Kristaps Smits made it to the main draw of the FIVB U19 World Championships in Larnaka, Cyprus. And this is just the beginning, said the younger brother of beach volleyball star Aleksandrs Samoilovs. “Now we want to win the pool and of course play in the final.” Mihails Samoilovs (18) grew up idolizing his older brother Aleksandrs (31), watching him train hard with their dad and win tournament after tournament. “When I was young I always watched him training. I watched him grow into one of the best beach volleyball players of the world. And I realized at a young age I can be like him too.” His big brother won the U21 World Championships in 2005 with Martins Plavins. Mihails Samoilovs is determined to follow his brother’s footsteps or maybe do even better, starting by winning the U19 this week. On Wednesday he and Kristaps Smits took the first hurdle by booking solid wins over Iranians Mohammadreza Hazratpour and Salar Ghanidelghahramanlou (21-13, 21-13) and Australia’s Adam Kitto and Bryce Poland (21-13, 21-18) in qualification. It took a bit of adjusting on the first day since it was the first time the two Latvians played together. They only had five days of practice together and …

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