Myslowice, Poland, June 7, 2013 – Brazilian pair Marcio Guadie Ley and Vitor Goncalves Felipe wrapped up pool play by winning twice to ensure they moved into the knockout rounds of the FIVB U23 Beach Volleyball World Championships with three wins from three.
After they won their only match on the opening day of competition, they returned to the court today to beat Sasa Surla and Djordje Klasnic of Serbia 2-0 (21–12, 21-18) and then held off New Zealand’s Thomas Hartles and Jesse Hawkins for another 2-0 (20-13, 22-20) victory on a day when the sun finally began to shine on the players after three days of rain and drizzle.
“Our aim was to win of course and I have to thank my partner because he played really well and he helped me a lot,” Marcio said. “This game was ok, we didn’t have too many problems, but I now I think our team is near to our best and we want to stay in this competition and beat everybody.”
The number three seeds did it in fine style by not dropping a set on route to the elimination rounds, though they admit they have yet to hit their best form so far in Myslowice.
Marcio added, “We can stay involved and get better and better as the tournament goes on.”
Also reaching the quarterfinals with three wins are Haralds Regza and Abolins Armands.
The Latvians enjoyed 2-0 wins against Belarus’ Anton Dedkov and Anton Sinhayeuski and William Hoey and William Sidgwick from Canada. The Canadians pushed Regza and Armands hard in the second set, but it wasn’t enough to spark a second set comeback.
“It has been very good and a good experience for us,” Regza said. “We didn’t play that well, we weren’t much organised. I think we had problems with our serve and our reception wasn’t great.”
Number one seeds and reigning FIVB U21 world champions Piotr Kantor and Bardosz Losiak gave the local crowd plenty to cheer about as they too progressed unbeaten after three matches and Regza believes they pose the biggest threat in the knock-out rounds.
“Dangerous teams, I think Poland, the Ukrainians (Valeriy Samoday and Sergiy Popov ) and also the Germans (Philipp Arne Bergmann and Jonas Schroder) will be good. They are at home, so I think that will help them be good,” he added.
Thirty-two teams per gender took place in the main draw of the inaugural FIVB U23 Beach Volleyball World Championships. The main draw started on June 6 and the tournament runs through until Sunday, June 9 when both the men’s and women’s finals take place.
Myslowice, located 70km from Poland’s ancient capital Krakow, is hosting an FIVB age-group tournament for the third time, after successfully hosting the U19 and U21 version in 2006 and 2007.
It has also regularly hosted stops on the FIVB World Tour – the first tournament was a women-only tournament in 2008, as was the 2011 event. In 2009, 2010 and 2012 it was the men who lit up the sand.