Bello twins secure historic gold in Rio
Beach Pro Tour
English beach volleyball made history on Sunday, with the Bello twins Javier and Joaquin securing the country’s first-ever victory in a major international event by triumphing at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The 24-year-old twins were on the verge of a breakthrough performance on the Beach Pro Tour after taking two bronzes at the Challenge level in the last 13 months, but they took it to another level with their victory in the sand of the iconic Copacabana beach. Europe sent a second team to the men’s podium in Brazil with reigning continental champions Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots of Latvia taking bronze.
The Bellos started their campaign in Brazil in the qualifier and won seven of their eight matches in the event to take gold. Their most impressive victories came on Sunday, when they topped Norwegian stars Anders Mol and Christian Sørum 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 15-12) in the semifinals and produced another comeback just a few hours later to overcome the Argentinean Capogrosso brothers Nicolas and Tomas Capogrosso in the tie-breaker (22-24, 30-28, 15-13) to come out on top of an exciting gold medal match in Brazil.
Javier Bello“I can tell you one thing: all four players were really tired in this match. Especially I was gone and I needed Joaquin today. And he came through! He is one of the best in the world. He is an amazing player.”
English Beach Volleyball Player
Reigning European champions Plavins and Fokerots won their second medal on the Beach Pro Tour and their first in an Elite16 event with a three-set (21-18, 13-21, 15-11) victory over Mol and Sørum in the gold medal match.
In the women’s event, Germans Sandra Ittlinger and Kim Van de Velde carried the European hopes of winning a medal on Sunday, but they fell to Americans Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) in the semifinals and to Brazilian Thamela Coradello and Victoria Lopes also in straight sets (21-19, 21-16) in the bronze medal match and finished fourth.
The Austrian Klinger sisters Ronja and Dorina and the new Italian team of Valentina Gottardi and Reka Orsi Toth finished fifth.
Next week, the Beach Pro Tour will go from Brazil to China, with the city of Haikou hosting a Challenge event from November 13-17.