Latvia’s 19-year-old Kristians Fokerots making a name for himself at EuroBeachVolley

They are 20 years apart if you look at their IDs – but their partnership seems to be working quite well. On Thursday evening, Latvia’s Beach Volleyball legend, Martins Plavins and youngster Kristians Fokerots emerged victorious from a EuroBeachVolley pool match with Switzerland’s Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer in Arnhem – in what is the first appearance for rising star Fokerots at a ‘senior’ European Championship. 

The expectations are extremely high in the Baltic country – a real Beach Volleyball powerhouse if we look at the achievements of players such as Plavins himself, Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs, no to forget two-time women’s European champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova. The expectations are justified especially looking at the CV of Kristians. Fokerots has medalled multiple times at age-group continental championships, starting with U18 gold in 2022, to continue with U22 and U20 bronze in 2023 and U20 gold earlier this summer in Myslowice, Poland. 

Kristians is currently competing at EuroBeachVolley alongside Martins Plavins, a true legend of the sport and 20 years his senior. Fokerots was only seven years old when Plavins, together with Janis Smedins, won a historic Olympic bronze medal at London 2012. “I was obviously very young, but I do have some distant memories, even though at the time Janis Smedins was actually drawing most of my attention since we come from the same city,” Kristians recalls. That small child would have hardly imagined that 12 years later he would have been competing on the European stage together with one of Latvia’s (Beach Volleyball) national heroes and icons. 

“Right now, I do not feel too much pressure when playing together with him, even though it was slightly different at the beginning, since I somehow felt the ‘obligation’ to impress him with my skills and ability,” Kristians adds. “It is rather a privilege to be playing with Martins since there is so much that I can learn and take from him. It is an incredible learning experience, and I am very grateful for that.” 

Fokerots and Plavins have made it to EuroBeachVolley after some teams did withdraw from the competition at a short notice. “Last year we were the first team on the reserve list, but we eventually did not make it to the competition, so I was very happy and excited when we were told that we had been moved to the Main Draw,” he stresses. “Even though I am still only 19, my ambition is to win every match that we contest here, and I am hoping that this approach will be taking us as far as possible, maybe even to the final weekend in The Hague,” he continues. 

With Latvia’s golden generation including Plavins, Smedins and Samoilovs slowly but surely reaching the end of their illustrious careers, Fokerots carries the hopes of the Baltic country to remain a force to reckon with in Beach Volleyball. There is indeed something to make up for since Latvia did not manage to qualify a men’s team for Paris 2024 – which was quite a setback. “I do have a partner, Gustavs Auzins, with whom I have been achieving much success in age-group competitions. We are just about to start the next Olympic cycle, and I would say that it is more likely than unlikely that you will see the two of us competing in Los Angeles in four years,” he says. 

For someone so young, Kristians radiates confidence, composure and remarkable maturity. This was shown at the end of a very close second set in his matchup with Krattiger and Breer, where he registered an impressive block to seal a 21-19 win that would send the game into a tiebreaker – which he and Plavins ultimately won as well. A star is born, so watch out for Kristians Fokerots – not only in four years at LA28, but right now too!