Brazilians George Wanderley-Saymon Barbosa (Photo FIVB)
Brazilians George Wanderley-Saymon Barbosa clinched a 24-22, 12-21, 15-12 victory over Sweden’s Olympic champions David Ahman-Jonatan Hellvig in Pool C of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Adelaide.
Saymon put away two aces and three kill blocks to lead his team with 23 points. George also fired two aces towards a 22-point tally, while Ahman topped the match charts with 24 points for the Swedish team.
In the other third-leg game, Andre Stein-Renato Lima of Brazil came back from a set down to beat Australians Paul Burnett-Thomas Hodges by 18-21, 21-19, 15-10. Andre raised an impressive eight kill blocks and nailed two aces to finish with 25 points. Hodges answered with five blocks and three aces to emerge with a match-high 28 points.
The Swedes will move on to the elimination rounds, but will have to wait till the end of the entire pool phase to find out if they will go straight to the sixteenthfinals, or will have to pass through the round of 36, dubbed “the lucky loser round”.
Meanwhile, the two Brazilian teams, who had both defeated Ahman-Hellvig took the first two places in the final pool standings and booked their direct tickets to the sixteenthfinals.
Spirited Kiwis outlast high-profile Italians in tie-breaker overtime
Thirty-third seeded Shaunna Polley-Olivia MacDonald of New Zealand achieved a sensational win over ninth-seeded Italians Valentina Gottardi-Reka Orsi Toth in the women’s competition.
Australian favorites Taliqua Clancy-Jana Milutinovic conceded their third defeat and dropped out of contention, while 36th-seeded Germans Melanie Paul-Lea Kunst won that pool.
The other three German pairs – Sandra Ittlinger-Anna-Lena Grune, Linda Bock-Louisa Lippmann and Svenja Muller-Cinja Tillmann – all achieved their second wins in Australia and also secured their spots in the sixteenthfinals.
Polley & MacDonald recovered from Friday’s loss to USA’s Julia Donlin & Lexy Denaburg with a 2-1 (21-18, 13-21, 18-16) upset of the world’s number eight and Pool I seeding leaders Gottardi & Orsi Toth.
In the tie-breaker, the Kiwis came back from a 14-11 deficit to push it to overtime and, after denying four Italian match points, claim their first win in Adelaide. MacDonald raised four kill blocks and fired two aces to top the match chart on a total of 23 points.
Polley added another 15, including two aces and a block, while Gottardi and Orsi Toth finished with 21 and 20 points, respectively.
Meanwhile in another three-setter, 16th-seeded Donlin-Denaburg achieved their second win in the pool, 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-7) over Lea Monkhouse-Marie-Alex Belanger, to top the pool standings and leave the Canadians winless at the bottom.
Gottardi-Orsi Toth and Polley-MacDonald are on a 1-1 win-loss record each, with the Europeans ahead on point ratios.
Mol and Sørum are the first pool winners in Australia
Norwegian stars Anders Mol-Christian Sørum emerged as the first pool winners in the men’s tournament on Sunday, when they won their third match in Adelaide.
The Beach Volley Vikings topped two duos from Switzerland and one from Uruguay to end pool play at the top of Pool A and will now have two days off before playing in the Round of 32 on Wednesday.
After defeating Uruguayans Hans Hannibal-Nicolás Llambías on Saturday and Swiss Adrian Heidrich-Jonathan Jordan on Saturday, Mol and Sørum faced another team from Switzerland in their third and last pool match in Adelaide and dropped their first set in the tournament, but still came out on top, beating Marco Krattiger-Leo Dillier 2-1 (24-26, 21-16, 15-12).
Tina and Anastasija make it through with their second victory in Adelaide
The first team to reach two victories in Pool E, Latvian Olympians Tina Graudina-Anastasija Samoilova joined the group of women’s duos qualified for the elimination rounds.
Undefeated after two matches in Adelaide, the Europeans now focus on earning a third positive result in Australia, which will get them a direct spot in the Round of 32 – they will complete their pool play schedule on Monday, against Italians Claudia Scampoli-Giada Bianchi.
Playing for a second-straight day in Adelaide on Sunday, Tina-Anastasija faced Japanese Reika Murakami-Asami Shiba, who had also won in their debut, and triumphed 2-0 (21-18, 21-17).
