Latvia's Ēbere and Konstantinova claim silver at European U-22 beach volleyball championship

Latvian beach volleyball duo Līva Ēbere and Deniela Konstantinova won silver medals on Sunday in Madrid at the European U-22 age-group championship. In a three-set final, the Latvians lost 1-2 (13:21, 21:16, 16:18) to the Dutch pair Nigella Negenman and Flora Hogenhaut, who were seeded third. Just two points separated the Latvians from gold in the deciding set.

Ēbere and Konstantinova, seeded fourth in the tournament, reached the final after a strong run through the bracket. In the semifinal, they beat tournament favorites Sofia Coruja and Adriana Ferro of Spain 2-0 (22:20, 21:18). In the round of 16 they defeated Italy's Sofia Buconi and Ilaria Nocua 2-0 (21:16, 21:16), and in the quarterfinal they beat Israel's Shira Danenberg and Daniela Gonzalez by the same score, 2-0 (21:18, 21:16).

Men's team also successful

At the same tournament, Latvia's men's duo Gustavs Auziņš and Kristians Fokerots became European champions, beating Lithuania's Povilas Piesis and Dovydas Sinkevičius 2-0 (21:18, 21:19) in the final, having been seeded second. It was the first European U-22 gold for the pair, though they had already won multiple other youth titles — the European U-18 and world U-19 championships in 2022, the European U-20 championship in 2024, and the world U-21 championship this year.

For Ēbere and Konstantinova, this marks their third medal together at youth level — they previously won silver twice at the European U-20 championship and bronze once in the U-22 category. Overall, Latvian athletes have now won 13 medals in this European youth championship category, four of them gold.