Mangaung, South Africa, December 10, 2014 – After winning gold and silver at the last two World Tour events, Canada’s Josh Binstock is eyeing another medal at the FIVB Beach Volleyball Mangaung Open. The fact that he is not playing with his regular partner Sam Schachter, but with Maverick Hatch, should not be a problem, the 33-year old blocker said Wednesday after winning their opening match.
Binstock and Hatch defeated American qualifiers Tyler McCoy and Hudson Bates 2-1 (19-21, 21-12, 15-12) on Wednesday morning. They lost the first set, won the second easy and in the tiebreak Binstock created a two-point gap with some strong serving and that was enough to close the game in the end.
“It was ugly”, Binstock said. “But it’s always like that in the morning, so we don’t panic. We don’t play with each other normally, so it’s the first time to get the rhythm. We are both mentally tough, so we know we can fight. The first set we loose, but no problem, the second set was easy.”
Binstock’s regular partner Sam Schachter stayed in Canada because of a shoulder injury. Hatch offered to travel with him to South Africa. They played together before, but not internationally.
“I already decided Qatar would be my last tournament. I was looking forward to being done”, Hatch said. “But Josh and I are good friends back home, and word got around he needed a partner, so I said: I am not going to try to convince you to going with me but if you want to go with me, I will go.”
It meant some adjustment for Hatch, who usually plays left side and blocker. “He never played right side and he also had to play defence with me”, Binstock said. “The setting was an issue as well. My style with Sam was very quick, I am not used to high, so it’s a little bit more difficult. But it was still pretty good.”
Hatch: “Yeah, I did get called four of five for setting in one match. I told him usually it’s one or two per tournament.”
Binstock and his regular partner Schachter recently won a gold medal at the Parana Open in Argentina and silver at the Qatar Open in Doha, their first World Tour medals ever. Their recent success is a result of different training, Binstock explained.
“We had an off season together, so we build chemistry together”, he said. “And going to Brazil, before Argentina. Because before we would always practice in Canada and go straight to the tournament. Before Sao Paolo we trained every day with Ricardo and Emanuel and Kantor and Losiak. And three of the four teams were top four. It’s the environment and before Argentina we did the same. Just to play at a high level.”
Despite the temporary change of partners Binstock is confident he can follow up with another medal. “Podium for sure”, he said. “We knew the beginning match would not be clean. So there’s no panic. Every game we will get better and better. We had training, but the competition is different. So if we keep playing better and better we can do this.”
“Another medal is definitely Josh’s goal and mine”, said Hatch. “In many situations this would add some pressure but at the same time I just welcome the opportunity, want to take advantage of it and take it match by match. And Josh is taking good care of me.”