Rio de Janeiro, August 11, 2016 – Cuba’s Nivaldo Diaz and Sergio Gonzalez secured their third win to top their pool at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) victory over Canada’s Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk at Copacabana Beach Arena on Thursday.
Here’s what they said after the match…
Nivaldo Diaz, Cuba
“It’s not easy, we’re taking things match by match. This wasn’t our hardest game because the Canadians made some mistakes. We had to change strategies throughout the game and conserve energy. It might seem easy to the fans, but it isn’t easy at all.
“Our main aim was to make it through the group. Maybe things have been working out a little better than we expected, but our expectations are to go one game at a time and to play a good game. Maybe it is a surprise, but we’ve been preparing for this for four years.”
Chaim Schalk, Canada
“We just weren’t quite at our best and some of the ball control wasn’t going as it normally goes. They are on fire right now and we were unable to slow them down.
“We had a lot of momentum going towards the end of the second and if we’d almost got them back. If we turned a couple of plays and transitioned a couple more of those balls, we could have taken over the match. They did a good job and we weren’t at our best.”