Plavins and Regza win Beach Volleyball gold at Baku 2015

The Latvian pair won the first set 21-16 over the Russia's Dmitry Barsouk and Yaroslav Koshkarev and led 16-14 in the second set with victory only five points away.

But the Russians won five consecutive points – aided by two consecutive spike errors from Latvia at 16-16 and 17-16 – to take control of the set and win it 21-18. 

The Latvians were not, however, rattled.

They won the first point of the third set and never trailed thereafter, eventually winning 15-10 to chants of 'LAT-VI-A' from the crowd.

Plavins, who won bronze with Janis Smedins at the London 2012 Olympic Games, said the temporary partnership between him and Regza would not continue after Baku.

"There is no future together. We split up with a gold medal," Plavins said. "I have my partner, he has his partner until Rio. I have my plans, he has got his plans, but we had small plans together and we did it."