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Diaz & Alayo extend season’s fantastic shape into Paris 2024 opener
PARIS, France, July 27, 2024.- The Cuban hopefuls deliver a dream start
to the Olympic Games. Before this season, Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo’s
best results came on the continental NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tour.
The young Cubans hardly ever appeared on the Volleyball World Beach Pro
Tour, and although they did make some headlines with the unexpected
fourth place at the Itapema Challenge in April 2023 and even more so
with their Pan American Games silver in October 2023, they were far from
being considered one of the big teams internationally.
The qualification process for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games had long
started but come March 2024 Diaz & Alayo were barely in the top 30 of
the FIVB World Ranking and nowhere near the qualification zone in the
provisional Olympic Ranking, some two thousand points below the closest
team that eventually qualified through the ranking. Yet here they are at
the Games in Paris, shining in Saturday’s tournament opener at the
Eiffel Tower Stadium, showing confidence in front of the thousands of
cheering spectators on the stands and mastering a straight-set 2-0
(21-18, 21-18) victory over USA’s leading pair, Miles
Partain & Andrew Benesh.
“We trained hard in Cuba before the start of the season and then we gave
everything on the court to achieve qualification,” was 21-year-old
Diaz’s simple explanation.
But what happened in between?
In late March, in Recife, the Cuban pair had their second go at an
Elite16 tournament and not only qualified for the main draw for the
first time at that level, but pushed forward all the way to the final to
stun the world with a silver medal. It was even more stunning that just
a week later, at the Saquarema Challenge, they claimed another silver.
After finishing fourth at their next Beach Pro Tour appearance, at the
Guadalajara Challenge, Alayo & Diaz continued their fantastic season
with a bronze at the Tepic Elite16.
In the meantime, they kept competing at the NORCECA Tour and medalled at
every single one of the three continental events they took part in this
year, clearly driven by the idea to collect enough points and qualify
for Paris. And so they did. In early June, the Cuban hopefuls took
another silver at the Stare Jablonki Challenge, at which point they
jumped over the cut-off line for the Games in the World Ranking,
eventually snatching the second-from-the-bottom qualification spot, some
540 points above the red line.
And if anyone had thought that it was a mission accomplished, and there
was no way Alayo & Diaz could continue maintaining this great shape into
the Olympics, they were proven wrong in the Paris 2024 opener. Match
favourites Partain & Benesh started better and opened a 16-11 lead in
the first set. At that point, however, the Cuban duo went on an
eight-point run, with some great serving from Diaz and some monster
blocking from Alayo, took control of the scoreboard, never looked back
and won the game in straight sets. They both showed speed, power and
efficiency in attack to help them tackle the tough opponents.
“The preparation that we had from the beginning of the season was
directed at keeping our physical power, mental strength and technical
level through the end of the competition. But putting our hearts into
the game is the most important part,” 23-year-old Alayo told FIVB after
the game. “We are working point by point, game by game... We think
through every step to keep the mind at ease and this is delivering good
results for us so far. For me, my partner is everything! He is
exceptional and I am very, very proud of what he always does and of the
strength he goes into the court with.
“We started in Qatar at the Doha Elite16 in January and went on to the
last Challenge event in Poland, where we secured the qualification. It
wasn’t easy. We started ranked 33rd and finished ranked 17th,
and here we are, winning our first game at the Olympics... It’s a big
responsibility. It’s wonderful! It’s wonderful to play in this kind of
setting, the biggest one I have ever played in. The fans are here and
even in the rain the stadium is almost full, and that provides great
extra motivation for us on the court. The first dream of every athlete
is to be here, at the Olympics, and the second one is about being aware
that you have given everything you’ve got to be satisfied with
yourself.”
“We expected that there would be a great audience. It was pretty even
between USA and Cuba. We came to the court to do our job and win the
public’s hearts,” 2.07m-tall defender Diaz added.
Mighty Brazilians Andre Stein & George Wanderley, the current number
three team in the FIVB World Ranking, are the next obstacle in Diaz &
Alayo’s Olympic quest. They will hit the court on Tuesday, at 12:00
local time (10:00 UTC), and the Cubans are already looking forward to
this challenge, while the Brazilians have yet to play their first-leg
game in the pool against Morocco’s Mohammed Abicha & Zouheir Elgraoui
later on Saturday.
“Now we are trying to keep our heads cold, analyze what happened today,
and give everything we’ve got against Brazil,” 1.98m-tall blocker Alayo
commented. “We always have good games against them since we first met at
the Pan American Games.”
Indeed the two teams know each other well. They exchanged three-set
victories at the Pan American Games, with George & Andre winning the
second encounter in the gold medal match. Another three-setter with an
epic tie-breaker against Diaz & Alayo gave the Brazilians the Saquarema
Challenge gold in the final. Their next encounter in the Tepic Elite16
semifinals was also pushed to three sets and it was once again George &
Andre who emerged victorious.
“Most importantly, we are going to enjoy every moment of the Games here,
step by step, keeping in mind the effort we put in to get here,”
concluded Diaz.
Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results |
