Campinas, Brazil, June 2, 2013 - Latvia's Olympic Games bronze medallists Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins overcame an early morning start to complete a 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) win against Germany's Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik to claim bronze on the final day of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Cup Final.
Despite their Olympic success in London, the long-time Latvian partners split at the end of 2012 but were happy to reunite for the tournament and look for more success together.
"We played together for four years," said Smedins. "So it was easy for us to get it right on the court. When we knew we would play together again here, our objective was to get a good result. The matches we lost were very close and we won bronze behind Brazil and USA, which are great teams, so it's very good for us."
Plavins-Smedins started the match well, got ahead and put the Germany pair under pressure. In his post-match review Matysik said a combination of fewer errors by the Latvians and the early start was the reason for the two-set defeat.
"We didn't play our level today," he said. "They were playable, and we had a couple of breaks, but from our side it was not well. They played stable and made less mistakes."
Erdmann, who was disappointed with fourth, agreed with his partner's assessment, but also highlighted his serving as a reason for defeat. "We were prepared, but we didn't play as well as against USA. I didn't have a good feeling today [with serving] and because of that I put more out. The ball movement was not the same as the days before, so I made a couple of mistakes."
As well as their bronze medals, the Latvia pair also earned $22,500 in prize money.