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One-of-a-kind day for Latvian Olympians Smedins & Samoilovs
- Updated: July 31, 2016
Klagenfurt, Austria, July 31, 2016 – It was a one-of-a-kind day for Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs.
The Latvia Olympians rode the wave of an emotional crowd to capture the A1 Major Klagenfurt, capturing the legendary tournament for the first time in their career. Smedins received birthday wishes from the fans earlier in the day, and then he and Samoilovs took the gold medal with a 21-18, 21-18 win over Brazilian youngsters Saymon Barbosa and Gustavo Carvalhaes.
And now it’s off to the Rio 2016 Olympics, where they will do battle with 23 other teams in the chase for Olympic gold.
“It’s very special because the crowd is the best in the world, starting the cheering in the first pool match and the stadium is almost full,” said Smedins, who was selected as the Most Outstanding Player in the tournament. “Our goal is to keep playing and play on center court, where the atmosphere is something unusual other than in other tournaments.
“Now we are in good shape and showing good volleyball and I think we have confidence to play with every other team, and if we play like this, we can beat every team. For the confidence, this is very good before the most important tournament in four years.”
Smedins, the London 2012 bronze medalist with Martins Plavins, and Samoilovs, a two-time Olympian, …
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