Ekaterina Vladimirovna Birlova

Ekaterina Birlova
at the 2012 Summer Olympics
portrait
birthday	August 11, 1987
place of birth	Bryansk, Soviet Union
size	1.80 m
Partner	2008–2009 Darja Jarsutkina 2009, 2011 Anna Valerjewna Vosakowa 2009–2010 Anastassija Gennadjewna Wassina 2011– Evgenija Nikolajewna Ukolowa 2017 Nadezhda Makrogusowa
World ranking	Item 114
successes
2012 - Winner Grand Slam Klagenfurt 2012 - Olympic ninth 2015 - Vice European champion 2016 - Olympic fifth
(As of July 11, 2018)

Jekaterina Vladimirovna Birlova ( Russian Екатерина Владимировна Бирлова , English transcription : Ekaterina Birlova, born August 11, 1987 in Brjansk as Ekaterina Vladimirovna Chomyakova) is a Russian beach volleyball player . She took part in the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016 and became Vice European Champion in 2015.

Career

Birlowa played in 2008 at the Grand Slam in Moscow with Darja Jarsutkina, her first tournament on the FIVB World Tour . Birlowa / Jarsutkina finished third at the Challenger tournament in Cyprus . They also played the Mysłowice Open. In 2009 Birlowa played two Grand Slams with Anna Valeryevna Vosakowa . At the U23 European champions in Jantarny , the duo came in seventh. After Birlowa competed again with Jarsutkina at the Åland Open, she formed a duo with Anastassija Gennadjewna Wassina . At the European Championships in Sochi, Birlowa / Wassina retired as third in the group after the preliminary round and finished ninth. They then came in seventh and ninth in the top ten at the Open tournaments in Sanya and Phuket . On the World Tour 2010 they finished ninth in the Grand Slam in Stavanger after finishing seventh in Moscow . In Stare Jabłonki they improved further and came in fifth. At the EM in Berlin they were eliminated as third in the group after the preliminary round. At the end of the year Birlowa played the Sanya and Phuket Open with Irina Tschaika .

At the beginning of 2011 she was fifth with Alexandra Alexandrovna Schirjajewa at the satellite tournament in Anapa . The first three tournaments of the World Tour 2011 she played with Anna Valerjewna Vosakowa , where she was ninth of the Sanya Open. Then she formed a duo with Yevgenia Nikolajewna Ukolowa . At the World Cup in Rome , Ukolowa / Birlowa managed to win the group, but then lost in the first main round against the Germans Goller / Ludwig . After a ninth place at the Grand Slam in Moscow, they prevailed at the European Championships in Kristiansand with only one preliminary round victory as group runner-up and were defeated by the Czechs Klapalová / Háječková in the second round . Then they finished ninth at the Åland Open. They started the World Tour World Tour 2012 with a 17th place in Brasília and a 13th place in Sanya . At the European Championship in The Hague , they won their preliminary group without losing a set before they were eliminated in the round of 16 against the Belgian duo Mouha / Gielen . At the Grand Slam in Klagenfurt they prevailed in the tiebreaker final against Meppelink / van Gestel and celebrated their first tournament victory. They qualified for the Olympic Games in London via the CEV Continental Cup . There they came in second in the group and finished the tournament in ninth place after losing to Chinese Zhang Xi and Xue Chen . After the Olympic tournament they achieved fourth top ten results in the Grand Slam in Stare Jabłonki and third and second place at the Open tournaments in Åland and Bang Saen .

At the beginning of 2013 Birlowa played the Fuzhou Open and the Grand Slam in Shanghai with Marija Andrejewna Prokopjewa . At the next Grand Slams, Ukolowa / Birlowa were together again and finished ninth in The Hague . At the World Cup in Stare Jabłonki they reached the second round, where they were eliminated against the Germans Ludwig / Walkenhorst and finished ninth. Immediately after the World Cup, they won the Anapa Open in the final against the German duo Mersmann / Schneider . They also finished fifth at the Masters in Klagenfurt and the Grand Slam in Berlin. In September they won a tournament of the Eastern European Volleyball Zonal Association (EEVZA) in Moscow.

After a year break, Birlowa returned with Ukolova in 2015. On the 2015 World Tour , Ukolowa / Birlowa finished fifth in the Lucerne Open and then ninth each of the Grand Slam in Moscow and the major tournaments in Poreč and Stavanger . At the World Cup in the Netherlands , they reached the knockout phase as second in the group, in which there were two duels against German duos. The Russians defeated Ludwig / Walkenhorst before they had to admit defeat Holtwick / Semmler in the round of 16 . At the European Championships in Klagenfurt , they came third in the group in the knockout phase. There they achieved fourth wins without losing a set, including in the quarter-finals against the German Laboreur / Sude and in the semifinals against the Polish duo Kołosińska / Brzostek . They lost the final in two sets against Ludwig / Walkenhorst. They achieved further top positions with ninth places in Sochi and Antalya and fifth place in Xiamen.

They also finished ninth at the beginning of 2016 at the Maceió Open. This was followed by three seventeenth places before Ukolowa / Birlowa came back into the top ten in Fuzhou, Antalya and Moscow. At the EM in Biel / Bienne , they won their preliminary group as well as the round of 16 and the quarter-finals against Laboreur / Sude. In two other German-Russian duels they had to give up defeat to the defending champions Ludwig / Walkenhorst in the semifinals and in the game for third place against Borger / Büthe , so that they finished the EM in fourth place. They achieved a further ninth place in the Klagenfurt Major. They used the last chance at the World Continental Cup to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio . There they came through the playoff round of the group third in the round of 16, which they won against the Spaniards Liliana / Baquerizo . In the quarterfinals they were then defeated by the Brazilian world champions Ágatha / Bárbara , so that they finished the Olympic tournament in fifth place. After that, they parted ways.

Birlowa formed a new duo with Nadezhda Makrogusowa in 2017 , who finished ninth at the first joint FIVB tournament in Fort Lauderdale . At the CEV Masters in Baden , where Makrogusowa had become U22 European champion immediately before, she reached the final with her new partner, which was won by the German duo Laboreur / Sude .

In 2018 Ukolowa is again Birlowa's partner.

Web links

Commons : Ekaterina Khomyakova  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Profile at the world association FIVB (English)
• Profile in the Beach Volleyball Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ FIVB world rankings (as of July 9, 2018)