Rio de Janeiro, August 9, 2016 – Canada’s Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk recorded their first win at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games when they beat Brazil’s Pedro Salgado and Evandro Goncalves 2-1 (17-21, 21-18, 16-14) at the Copacabana Beach Arena on Tuesday.
Here’s what they said after the match…
Chaim Schalk, Canada
“We just played steady. That's a very physical team that likes to serve really tough. Going in, we knew we had to deal with it, we knew we had to control the ball and control the tempo.
“We were just able to grind them down and keep pushing. I'm really proud of our fight today.
“They're hostile a little bit (the crowd). It's funny when they're booing us, I think. It doesn't really rattle us, so they can boo us all they want and that's just going to give us more energy. I don't know, I've never heard that much before. It was fun.
“They (next opponents, Cuba’s Nivaldo Gomez/Sergio Gonzalez) beat this team as well. Every team in our pool is around the same level, and it's a tough one. We need to come out and get that win.
“Anything can happen in our pool. We could win the pool or there's still a chance we could not get out of the pool, so we've got to keep grinding and taking it one point at a time.”
Pedro Salgado, Brazil
“We played strong, with our heart. We lacked a bit in the serve, but we already served better than in the previous match. The Canadians played really well, and were strong under the net.
“We came out with a good side-out, but it wasn't enough.”
Evandro Goncalves, Brazil
“It wasn't because of some specific decisions that we lost the match, or for anxiety. I don't know what happened, it happened that they scored.
“It could have happened that they served and we scored. It went in their favour, but this is beach volleyball, there is no favourite.
“We scored 42 points, and only one, two or three points decided the match.”