Krafft brothers retain Winter Classic crown
Brothers Max and Jura Krafft once again came to the fore at the Deutscher Turn- und Sportverein (DTS) Liqui Fruit Beach Volleyball Series, retaining their Winter Classic crown in Windhoek last weekend.
Held at the DTS Beach Volleyball Arena on Saturday, the Winter Classic was the first event in the four-part series, with the Spring Open, Mixed and Summer Open events still to follow.
The tournament featured 13 two-a-side men’s teams, 11 two-a-side women’s teams, 10 two-a-side U19 boys’ teams, five two-a-side U19 girls’ teams and a six-team four-a-side section competing for top honours.
The Krafft brothers beat Simeon Ndaxula and Theodor Thomas 2-0 in the final to retain the men’s section title they also won last June, when they overcame the same pair. Ndaxula and Thomas once again finished with silver.
Claim title once more
Reflecting on the victory, the Krafft brothers described it as a wonderful experience to overcome the same pair once more and retain the title, despite playing after sundown.
“It’s always fun playing against Theodor and Simeon. The key to securing the victory was definitely putting them under pressure straight from the start with our serve. We tried to [disrupt their rhythm as much as possible] to secure crucial points,” they said.
They also credited their late block pulls for helping them stay alive in the rallies and win key points.
“I also think the late pull from the block worked well because we could pick up the shots more easily, keep fighting in the rallies and still make the point,” they said.
The last time the duo won the tournament, they used it as preparation for the U21 African Continental Championships in Morocco, where they won Namibia’s first gold medal at the event.
They once again used Saturday’s event as preparation, this time for Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures events in Turkey, Poland and Belgium.
“We’ll first start in Turkey, then Poland and Belgium. It’s our first time participating in these FIVB [International Volleyball Federation] high-level events. We’ll give our best and see what comes,” they said.
Other champions
At the time of going to print yesterday, organisers had yet to release the full results of the competition.
The women’s section had new champions in Carmen Curschmann and Maike van Doorn, who beat Pia Lück and Nadia Böhm 2-0 in the final to claim the title.
The pair said their celebration would include hot showers, Germany’s Fifa World Cup match against Côte d’Ivoire, which was played at 22:00, and plenty of sleep to recover. Germany came from behind to win the match 2-1.
The four-a-side section was won by Only The Family (OTF), who beat Lefa Legends 2-0 to claim their first title in the series.
The rest of the results were not available at the time of going to print.
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