Baltic Olympics update: Aug. 12

Estonia

Estonian women's epee team defeated by Russia in bronze match

Estonian women's epee team — Irina Embrich, Erika Kirpu, Julia Beljajeva, and Kristina Kuusk — lost its match against Russia for third place of the Rio Olympics with a score of 31-37 on Thursday.

The team competed in the semifinals against China, the winners of the 2012 Olympics, and lost 36-45.

Estonian discus throwers make it to the final in Rio

Both Estonian discus throwers, Gerd Kanter and Martin Kupper, on Friday moved on from the qualifying round to Saturday's final at the Rio Olympic Games.

Kanter qualified with a throw of 64.02 metres, the fifth-best result, and Kupper placed 10th in the qualifying round with 62.92 metres.

The top three finalists out of a field of 35 are Piotr Malachowski from Poland (65.89), Austrian Lukas Weisshaidinger (65.86), and Germany's Christoph Harting (65.41).

 

Latvia

Samoilovs/Smedins eliminated from Rio tournament

Latvian beach volleyball duo of Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins lost to Evandro Oliveira/Pedro Solberg Salgado (Brazil) in their decisive preliminary round game 1-2 (16:21, 22:20, 7:15) last night, and closed the Olympic tournament in 19th place.

The Latvians placed fourth in Pool D, failing to advance to the final round.

Earlier on Thursday, Nivaldo Diaz/Sergio Gonzalez of Cuba, defeated Canada's Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk 2-0 (21:15, 21:18).

As reported, Samoilovs/Smedins beat Saxton/Schalk 2-1 (21:17, 18:21, 15:13) on Monday, then lost to Diaz/Gonzalez 1-2 (21:23, 21:19, 9:15) on Tuesday.

Smedins, alongside Martins Plavins, won bronze at the London Olympics four years ago.

Samoilovs/Smedins closed 2013 and 2014 seasons as the world's top-ranked beach volleyball duo.