The indoor championship of the Bavarian beach volleyball players has already demonstrated for the second time how well opposites and unknowns can sometimes be mixed into a wonderfully harmonious melange.
Kirchweidach/Grafing – It is well known that sand sports can also be practiced indoors in winter.
The venue in the Altötting community: special to exotic.
"Really unusual setting," Julius Höfer was amazed at the sight of the repurposed packaging hall, which had been transformed into a heated beach arena with all the chicanes between the tomato greenhouses of a vegetable farm.
"With DJs from the German Tour from Hamburg, whirlpool and sauna in the players' area.
The organizers have already come up with a lot for this tournament category.”
No wonder that the former Bundesliga volleyball player regretted not being able to take part in the first edition of the "TomatOpen".
As one of a total of three TSV Grafing starters at the first BVV Beach Masters (category 1+) in the new year, he enjoyed the extraordinary atmosphere all the more.
"The booth was already full during our qualifying round on Friday afternoon!"
In the mood that swept from the ranks onto the two courts, Höfer almost lost sight of the fact that he actually landed “from the cold”.
Since he said goodbye to Grafing's indoor volleyball team and has been primarily concerned with job and family in Austria, regular training has hardly been possible.
"Only every two weeks do we meet up in good company in Munich to play."
As expected, the qualification was not a problem for Höfer and his Slovenian team partner Nejc Zemljak (EURO 2017 participant).
“After that came the key game for us against the opponents rated as the strongest, when we realized that we could also win the thing,” Julius Höfer commented on his own tie-break success against Burgis/Klinkert.
With a score of 15:10, Höfer/Zemljak won a high-class quarter-final and then won their ticket to the final with a 2-0 win against Held/Nissen.
There Höfer met his former Grafinger teammate Daniel Kirchner.
The Ebersberger, who is playing for Beach4U with partner Kim Huber, had only lost three sets in the course of the tournament and also took a 1-0 lead in the final of the "TomatOpen" (21:19).
"Of course, Dani is much fitter at the moment and the two will probably beat me more often in the future," said Höfer with a smile.
At the moment, however, he is still benefiting from a "very good partner and decisively from our routine".
A 21:18 and 15:11 later the final was shot and Höfer/Zemljak were crowned Bavaria's indoor champions.
Grafing's Christian Seitz (with Daniel Müller) finished fifth, Adrian Nachtwey finished 13th with Kilian Nennhuber.