Czech world champions win gold at Stare Jablonki Challenge
Beach Pro Tour
Reigning world champions Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner of Czechia led four European teams to the podium of this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Stare Jablonki Challenge, which came to an end in Poland on Sunday.
The Czechs were the winners of the men’s tournament, which also had Dutch Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot at the podium, in third place. Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova and Spain’s Liliana Fernández/Paula Soria took silver and bronze, respectively, among the women.
In order to secure their first title since their victory at last year’s World Championship, Perusic and Schweiner had to win five matches over the week in Stare Jablonki. In the last of them, the gold medal match, they beat Cubans Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz in the tie-breaker (21-17, 17-21, 15-11).
Ondrej Perusic“These were intense three days. We faced many opponents who are among the top 15 in the World Rankings. We hadn’t won since the World Championship and were under pressure to perform well and I’m glad that we did it. It’s good timing for us to start playing well as we have our home tournament in Ostrava next week, which is very important.”
Czech beach volleyball player
Boermans and de Groot secured the last spot on the podium in Poland with their two-set (21-12, 21-10) victory over Argentinean brothers Nicolas and Tomas Capogrosso.
The women’s final in Poland didn’t go Europe’s way as Tina and Anastasia couldn’t handle China’s Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia, who triumphed in two sets (21-16, 22-20) to take the title.
Liliana and Paula didn’t have to play the bronze medal match to secure their spot on the podium as Canadians Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley had to forfeit it due to an injury.
The Beach Pro Tour will continue in Europe next week, with the Czech city of Ostrava hosting the Elite16 event that will mark the end of the qualification period for the Paris Olympics.