Latvia’s Samoilovs/Smedins win their pool 3-0 Thursday elimination rounds next at FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam

Long Beach, Calif., USA, August 25, 2016 — They carried the weight of their country on their shoulders and they knew it. Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins had also put the pressure on themselves heading into the Rio 2016 Olympics. They had just won the A1 Major Klagenfurt and they headed to Brazil as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour leaders, so certainly the expectations were high for the Latvians.Suddenly, it was over. The Latvians were one of three teams in their four-team pool to finish with a 1-2 record, but when the tiebreaking points were added up, Samoilovs and Smedins were out before the knockout phase of the Olympics.“It was a big shock for us, for our fans for all of our team, for our country, because everybody was expecting a medal from us,” Samoilovs said. “And also there was 15 teams that were also going for a medal and it was hard.“It was big pressure from everybody and for us. Only a medal would satisfy us, especially for Janis because he got a bronze in the last Olympics. But this is sports. That’s why it’s so interesting. If it would be always the strong team wins, it wouldn’t be that interesting. Everybody is waiting for good teams to lose so it becomes more interesting.”At the World Series of Beach Volleyball FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam featuring the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, Samoilovs and Smedins have rebounded from their disappointment. On Thursday, they won their two matches to go undefeated in Pool B to advance to Friday’s elimination rounds.The 2016 FIVB World Tour regular season is concluding in the United States with the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball being held Tuesday through Sunday on a colorful purpose-built venue at Alamitos Beach adjacent to Marina Green Park on East Shoreline Drive.Latvia’s Samoilovs/Smedins are joined by Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak (Pool E) and Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariuz Prudel (Pool G) as undefeated winners in their groupings. Also going 3-0 were Olympians Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera of Spain (Pool F) and USA Olympians Nick Lucena/Phil Dalhausser (Pool A) and Brazil Olympians Pedro Solberg/Evandro (Pool C).Winning their pools with 2-1 records were Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin (Pool D) and Mexico’s Lombardo Ontiveros/Juan Virgen (Pool H).  The first two of the men’s elimination rounds will be held Friday heading into Saturday’s quarterfinals and semifinals. The medal matches will be played Sunday.ASICS WSOVBWhile the cornerstone of the beach volleyball …

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