Dutchmen to challenge home icons in Sao Paulo final, bronze goes to Poland

Sao Paulo, Brazil, September 28, 2014.  Last men standing will play out in Brazil on Sunday as teams from host country Brazil and the Netherlands will challenge each other for the men’s gold medal at the double-gender US$ 800,000 FIVB Sao Paulo Grand Slam.

Following impressive semifinal victories on Saturday, meeting in the final match at the Barueri complex will be Netherlands’ 13th-seeded Reinder Nummerdor / Christiaan Varenhorst and Brazil’s iconic Olympic champions - 6th-seeded Ricardo Santos / Emanuel Rego.

Nummerdor / Varenhorst are playing in just their second tournament together with one fifth place finish and they are 5-1 in this tournament.  Individually, Nummerdor is a veteran Olympian from the Netherlands, playing in his 80th career FIVB tournament with nine gold medals.  Varenhorst is in his 47th FIVB tournament with a career best third place in Fuzhou this year.

Both sides in the bronze medal match were in anguish, lamenting their semifinal losses in the first appearance for both teams, but the play was not indicative of what they had gone through in the semis.  Poland’s 16th-seeded Piotr Kantor / Bartosz Losiak, young, but more experienced, hung on in three sets to win the bronze medal over Canada’s 23rd-seeded Josh Binstock / Sam Schachter by 2:1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-12) in their 52-minute match.  Seeming to trade punches throughout three close sets, splitting the first two, Kantor / Losiak went on a 3-0 run in the tiebreaker to pull ahead and finally defeat the game effort by Binstock / Schachter.

“This was a long tournament and both teams were very tired.  Maybe for some people this was not a good match, but we won and we are very happy,” Bartosz Losiak said.  “This is the last tournament this year for us. Maybe next year we will play better and be less tired.  We have won four medals including three gold medals in FIVB age group world championships.  Because we got a bronze medal in an FIVB Grand Slam on the FIVB World Tour, maybe this achievement is better because we played against very good and experienced teams, not against young opponents.  This tournament is very important for us because it gives us points for next year and next year’s FIVB World Championship.  We feel amazing - first time in the top four, first time medal – we are very happy.”

Kantor / Losiak were playing in their 29th FIVB event as a team and were making their first final four appearance on the FIVB World Tour.  They finished with a 5-3 record in this event.  On the way to the final four, the young Polish stars defeated both USA’s 9th-seeded Jake Gibb / Casey Patterson and Latvia’s 4th-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs / Janis Smedins.  Their best FIVB World Tour finish prior to this year was a fifth place in Brazil last year.

Evading the rain that has poured at times over the last two days, Saturday’s first semifinal saw Nummerdor / Varenhorst outmuscle Binstock / Schachter in two sets by 2:0 (23-21, 21-13) in 37 minutes.  They used a combination of height and experience to stop the exciting march by Canada’s duo.  After a very close first set that saw the Canadians keep within a point or two throughout most of the set and tie it at 21-21 before the Netherlands scored the final two points to win.  Disappointment and frustration showed clearly in the play of the Canadians in the second set as Nummerdor / Varenhorst gradually pulled away to close out the set and the match.

“It is only our second tournament and we are already a final two spot, so I am excited already,” Christiaan Varenhorst commented.  “I felt I still wanted to play some tournaments, I felt physically good, mentally good, I felt like there was more to achieve, so I asked Reinder.  And I think we have proven ourselves now.  Only the feeling having him next to me makes me calmer and makes me play my own game and sometimes if I lose my head he tells me: ‘just do whatever your strength is and you will be fine.’”

“Back in the final!  I played with my old partner back in the Klagenfurt final in 2012 before the Olympics,” reminisces Reinder Nummerdor.  “We decided in the last tournaments to play together and see what we could achieve, how the chemistry is between us and well, it is working out great so far!  We lost the first set almost in the first five points.  I made some mistakes in the beginning.  We did not say much because I knew I was still getting my rhythm.  I was just searching a little bit how they were playing and we found a good rhythm after that.  The side-out was going better and better and we made some crucial points in the end.  It was really important to win the first set.  I always say it is just a matter of playing like it is any other game.  That is the key.  If you can get that in your head, you do what you do every day, but that is not easy with the pressure of a final.  However, tomorrow we will see if we have learned that lesson as a team.”

To the thrill of the swelling crowd on the Barueri stadium center court in the second semifinal of the day, Brazil’s Ricardo Santos / Emanuel Rego overcame the aggressive effort by Piotr Kantor / Bartosz Losiak, as the home country favorites won in straight sets by 2:0 (28-26, 21-17) in 40 minutes to earn their spot in Sunday’s gold medal match.  Ricardo / Emanuel used all their skills and experience to outlast the Poland’s young, athletic duo.  It took all the Brazilians could muster in the first set to come from behind and save off four set points to finally overcome the Polish pair.  Obviously shaken by their first set loss, Kantor / Losiak came out a bit overwhelmed to start the second set and the Brazilians capitalized and patiently moved their way through the set building enough of an edge to pull out the match win in two sets.

Click here for more info on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Sao Paulo Grand Slam.