Other events in Baltic States
International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics
Friday, 20.06.2025, 15:51
Samoilovs and Šmēdiņš win silver in Rome’s Volley Grand Slam
Print version
Jānis Šmēdiņš and Aleksandrs Samoilovs won the silver medal in the Beach Volleyball’s Grand Slam – Rome at the Foro Italico on Sunday, informed BC the Latvian Institute.
They were bested by the U.S. Sean Rosenthal and Phil Dalhausser who won their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour gold medals.
With Samoilovs and Smedins having enjoyed a gold and silver on the World Tour this year, they made life difficult for the Americans, but admitted defeat with a narrow 21-19, 21-18 lose.
The silver medals are the second Samoilovs and Šmēdiņš have won in two weeks, having finished second at The Hague Grand Slam.
Now they have only a few days to recuperate from their endeavours at the Rome Grand Slam, before the World Championships begin on July 1.
“We have one tournament in Latvia, it will be our first tournament in two years in Latvia,” Samoilovs said. “Then we go to Poland and a lot of Latvian fans will come. I know there are big buses coming. We need to relax a bit now and start our preparations.”
On the FIVB men’s international season scorecard, USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal (Fuzhou, Rome) have won two gold medals while USA’s Gibb/Patterson (Shanghai), Latvia’s Šmēdiņš/Samoilovs (Corrientes) and Brazil’s Salgado/Schmidt (The Hague) each have one gold medal.
Based on winning percentage to date, USA’s Dalhausser/Rosenthal is now first at 86.4% (19-3), followed by Latvia’s Šmēdiņš /Samoilovs at 80.0% (24-6), Brazil’s Salgado/Schmidt, USA’s Gibb/Patterson tandem at 78.6% (22-6), , and Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel at 75.0% (21-7).
The 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is comprised of 10 Grand Slam events and the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. Not part of the World Tour but still counting towards the FIVB World Rankings, the FIVB yearly calendar also includes seven Open events throughout the world to help open the door for development of the sport.
The 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour will end in Brazil with the $440,000 FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam to be held October 9-13.
«The Baltic Course» Is Sold and Stays in Business!
