Youth (Men) ECH: volleyball feast in Turkey

Polish Youth National Team flew to Ankara for the European Championships. The first match of Maciej Zendeł’s team will take place on Saturday, against Greece (start at 15.30h). We will find out about the medalists on the 24th of April.

Polish Youth National Team flew to Ankara for the European Championships. The first match of Maciej Zendeł’s team will take place on Saturday, against Greece (start at 15.30h). We will find out about the medalists on the 24th of April. – The weather is accurate, not too hot – informed the polish coach on his way from the airport to the hotel.

- As each and every athlete, we also dream about medals and would like to win them – said coach Maciej Zendeł, before the departure. – We fly to Turkey with hope and will to fight. We are determined to win. We realize, the first months of the year have been positive for the polish volleyball. In the European Cups tournament our teams classified high in the ranking. We have nothing against continuation of the run of luck.

Our main goal is to get place at the top six, in order to qualify to the Youth (Men) World Championships. We will have the following rivals: Greece (16th of April, 15.30h), Turkey (17th of April, 18.00h), Serbia (18th of April, 15.30h), Bulgaria (20th of April, 13.00h) and Germany (21st of April, 15.30h). – As you can see, we will face many dangerous rivals. Definitely, Serbia and Germany will present strong composition of the team, as usually. The host team will also play a significant role in the tournament. However, at first, we would like to focus ourselves on the first opponent - Greece. Then, we will concentrate on Turkey - added coach Maciej Zendeł.

Twelve of the participating teams are divided on two groups. – The Championships are to be held according to the different system. Previously, we used to play in four groups, with three teams each one. At the time, enough was to win the two matches, one in the group, the other in the next phase, in order to promote to the semifinal. Now, in the first phase each team is going to play five matches. It is more beneficial from the training point of view – says coach of the polish national team.

In qualification Poland played in Estonia and took the second place in the group phase, right after Finland. Both teams eliminated Italy from the European Championships.