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CANCUN, Mexico, May 1, 2021 - Taliqua Clancy and
Mariafe Artacho del Solar denied Brazil the
opportunity of winning gold medals in all three
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-star
tournaments at the Cancun Hub as the Australians
topped the final podium at Playa Delfines on
Sunday.
The bronze medallists of the 2019 FIVB Beach
Volleyball World Championship, the Australians
had the slimmest of margins in a hard-fought,
three-set battle against Agatha Bednarczuk and
Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa and secured the title with
a 2-1 (19-21, 22-20, 16-14) victory.
The Australians, who finished fifth in the first
tournament and ninth in the second, repeated
what they did in 2019, when they won the
Chetumal Open, played nearly 400 miles south of
Cancun, and returned home from Mexico with a
gold medal in their bags.
“We love you, Mexico!,” Artacho del Solar
celebrated.
“We’ll have great memories of these events. We
came here with a goal and even though it didn’t
go our way in the first two events, we kept
strong, stayed focused and here we are. I’m so
happy.”
The bronze medal match in Cancun was a rematch
of the 2019 World Championship final and marked
the 14th meeting between USA’s April Ross and
Alix Klineman and Canada’s Sarah Pavan and
Melissa Humana-Paredes since 2018.
The Americans extended their winning record
against their Canadian rivals to 9-5 with a 2-0
(21-16, 21-15) win that secured them the last
spot on the podium.
It took them three attempts, but Cherif
Younousse and Ahmed Tijan will leave the Cancun
Hub with gold medals around their necks. Silver
medallists in the first two FIVB Beach
Volleyball World Tour 4-star events at the Playa
Delfines, the Qataris climbed another step on
the podium on Sunday as they won the third and
final tournament in Mexico.
After losing back-to-back finals to Norway’s
Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, the 25-year-old
Cherif and the 26-year-old Ahmed remained strong
and secured the title of the final tournament on
Mexican sand with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) win
against Russians Konstantin Semenov and Ilya
Leshukov.
It was the first victory for the Qataris
together in a 4-star event and just their second
as a team, following their triumph in a 1-star
tournament in Doha in February. Cherif and Ahmed
have won more medals than any other men’s team
in 2021, with two golds and two silvers in five
tournaments.
American veterans Phil Dalhausser and Nick
Lucena won their first World Tour medal since
March 2019 as they finished third in Cancun
after defeating Italians Adrian Carambula and
Enrico Rossi 2-0 (21-19, 21-15) in the bronze
medal match. |
