Portugal and the Netherlands qualify two teams for 1-Star Cortegaça semis
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The Portuguese derby Roberto/Sebastião vs Pedrosa/Campos and Reiter/Murauer (Austria) vs Javier Bello/Joaquin Bello (England) are the semi-final matches of the men’s competition at the World Tour 1-Star event in Cortegaça - which is taking place at the High Performance Beach Volleyball Centre run by the Portuguese Volleyball Federation.
Another Portuguese tandem, Rui Moreira and João Simões, eventually failed to reach the semi-finals as they lost to their compatriots and reigning national champions Roberto Reis and Sebastião Leão Alves.
Rui Moreira: “We improved from match to match. Unfortunately, our journey is now over but we take positives from this event. We gave everything in training and in the matches, we tried our best, and I think we honoured the name of Portugal here, which is always our main goal in international competitions. I would like to publicly congratulate the Canadian team [Kopp/Russell] for the fair-play showed in the match they played against us. They called out a ball that no one called and this came at the end of a set, which made it easier for us to win. I would like to leave another word of encouragement for Beach Volleyball, a sport in which we had great teams in the past and needs more support to be able to return to the spotlight.”
Moreira and Simões finish the competition in fifth place as Fabrício Barros/Gabriel Cardoso completed their journey in ninth.
In the women's tournament, the Netherlands are the dominant force. Brecht Piersma and Emma Piersma face their compatriots Wies Bekhuis/Nadine Everaert in the semis, while Spanish sensation Nazaret Florian and Nuria Bouza face the no less surprising team Alice Zeimann/Shaunna Marie Polley from New Zealand – who made it through the qualification round earlier this week.
As for the Portuguese teams, Inês Castro and Beatriz Pinheiro lost in the quarterfinals to Bekhuis and Everaert, thus finishing the competition in fifth place. With her feet firmly on the ground, Beatriz acknowledged the superiority of the opponents, but highlighted the growth of her partnership with Inês, a team devoted to Beach Volleyball throughout the year and supported by the Portuguese Volleyball Federation for this purpose.
“We can say that we draw the line with many positives. Yesterday, we did not play our best matches, as much as when we won and when we lost. Today we had a different attitude, which helped us to play better and we claimed a good victory in the first game. Against the Dutch, we knew that our opponents were superior, but we did not start the match feeling defeated. We fought for the victory and, in general, we had a good game. This was our first World Tour tournament in which we played in the Main Draw and a 5th place represents a positive. It brings us more confidence. Next week, we will play another tournament, starting with the qualification, but we will do everything to make it to the Main Draw again.”
The reigning Portuguese champions Juliana Antunes and Tania Oliveira could not surpass the Dutch team formed by sisters Brecht and Emma Piersma, and had to be content with ninth place.
Juliana, who recently became Beach Volleyball national champion for the 10th time, acknowledged that the Dutch team were the favourites: “We are happy, and for several reasons. Unfortunately, we were unlucky with the draw, as our group was difficult, with experienced athletes who have been playing at this level for some time. The Dutch Federation is investing a lot in Beach Volleyball, it is a school with a different type of game from the one we are used to playing in Portugal. It is always good to represent Portugal in a competition like this. We learned a little more about Beach Volleyball and that we have to be here many times to be able to play as equals. We fought toe-to-toe despite some difficulties we had and I am very proud because we made it through a difficult pool, with a level above most others, and then we even had to play another tough team, but Volleyball is just like that.”