Volleyball’s Hlupic and Fischer in Croatia

The duo of Tin Hlupic and Gerard Fischer roared that they were ready for the Beach Volleyball Under 21 World Championships that started on Wednesday in Croatia after they won the fourth tournament of the KIA National Beach Volleyball Tour that took place at the DTS club in Olympia last Saturday.
A total of 36 sides participated in five different categories at an event that was sponsored by Maerua Superspar, but Hlupic and Fischer managed to grab their second career title in the men’s competition that saw seven teams squaring off in the double elimination format.
“That’s exactly what we needed, now we are ready,” stated Fischer after he had converted their third match ball with a powerful spike.
The two 18-year-olds departed from Windhoek on Monday together with team-manager Heiko Kesselmann and coach Lück to represent Namibia at the Under 21 World Championships in Umag, a coastal town in Croatia.
Henckert Tourist Centre is the main partner of the team, investing into the Under 21 national teams development and international exposure. Other official sponsors of the team are Absolute Logistics, Scania Namibia, African Packaging, Rockwater Consulting as well as Windhoek Consulting Engineers.
“The intensive training over the past couple of months seems to be paying off,” said coach Lück. “After they lost the second set they stuck to their game plan and regained their momentum, which is what I wanted to see from them.
The President of the Namibian Volleyball Federation (NVF), Heiko Diehl, said Hlupic and Fischer deserved to win at the Saturday torunament. He praised the development of the two youngsters over the past twelve months. “They have improved tremendously since their participation at the U18 world cup in Cyprus,” he said
A year ago Hlupic and Fischer lost their three matches without winning a set.