Sochi, Russia, May 4, 2016 - There has been a lot of frustration for Jakub Szalankiewicz and Michal Kadziola the past 13 months on the FIVB World Tour, but a win here Wednesday over a young and upcoming team from Russia helped ease some of the irritation for the long-standing Polish pair.
With Szalankiewicz celebrating his 27th birthday Tuesday, the 2-0 (21-12, 21-17) win in 32 minutes over 17th-seeded Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin of Russia in an opening Pool A match in the men’s Sochi Open was a belated present as the pair has been hampered during the qualifying cycle for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by injuries and a family death.
BAD LUCK
“We have had a lot of bad luck the last year,” said Kadziola, who will celebrate his 27th birthday at the end of the month (May 28) when the FIVB World Tour visits the Russian capital for the Moscow Grand Slam (May 24-29). “I miss four events (May 25-June 20, 2015) due to an ankle injury.”
With Szalankiewicz also missing events due to a leg injury, the Polish pair fell behind compatriots Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak (No. 9, 4,780 points) and Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel (No. 11, 4,760) in the competition for berths in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games where a maximum of two teams per country can compete.
“Yes, it is frustrating that we have not been at our best in a bid for a spot in the Olympics,” said Kadziola. “That was our goal, but a lot of misfortune has been in our way. We are happy that Poland is doing very well on the world tour. We just wish we had had our health to compete better for Olympic berths.”
11 SEASONS, 80 EVENTS
Despite still being in their 20s, Kadziola and Szalankiewicz have played together for 11 seasons and are one of the more experienced teams on the international circuit with the Sochi Open being their 80th FIVB World Tour event. Prior to starting full-time on the world tour, the pair captured a pair of FIVB youth world championships (under 19 in 2007 and under 21 in 2009).
When asked about playing Wednesday against another youth championship team in Stoyanovskiy and Yarzutkin (Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic champions) was anything “special”, Szalankiewicz said “no. That was a long time ago that we won those titles. Today it was special since we played better than we did in our last two tournaments in China. Right now, we have to get ready for two more matches tomorrow with the hope to better our last performance in Fuzhou where we finished 25th.”
With Wednesday’s win over the young Russians, Kadziola and Szalankiewicz avenged a setback earlier this season in Iran where Stoyanovskiy and Yarzutkin posted a 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 15-10) semi-final win in 45 minutes over the Poles. Kadziola and Szalankiewicz finished fourth in the event while Stoyanovskiy and Yarzutkin reached the second spot on the podium where they lost the finale to Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse of Qatar.
THURSDAY’S MATCHES
Seeded 16th in the Sochi Open, Kadziola and Szalankiewicz conclude Pool A play Thursday against 32nd-seeded Kusti Nolvak/Mart Tiisaar of Estonia and top-seeded Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst of Austria. As the No. 7 team on the Rio provisional Olympic qualifying list (4,940 points), Doppler and Horst opened play Wednesday with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) win in 29 minutes over the Estonians.
Doppler and Horst have won three of four FIVB World Tour matches against Kadziola and Szalankiewicz, including a 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 15-10) pool play decision a month ago in Doha, Qatar. The Poles will be playing Nolvak and Tiisaar for the first-time as the Estonians are playing in only their third FIVB World Tour event.
The Sochi Open has attracted women’s and men’s teams from 32 countries for the second annual event. Following Thursday’s pool play matches, the elimination round matches begin Friday with the semi-finals Saturday. The medal matches will be Sunday where the winning men’s and women’s pairs will each share the $11,000 first-place prizes.
UP NEXT
Following Sochi, the final four FIVB World Tour qualifying events will be played in Turkey (Antalya, 10-15), the United States (Cincinnati, May 17-22), Moscow (May 24-29) and Germany (Hamburg, June 7-12). Also counting towards Olympic qualification will be the European championships June 1-5 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. The Rio 2016 Olympic Games will be played August 6-18 on iconic Copacabana.