Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 12, 2016 - Nivaldo Diaz and Sergio Gonzalez continue to “awe” the world’s beach volleyball elite as the Cubans advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s beach volleyball competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by dominating Austrians Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst here Friday afternoon.
Qualifying for the Rio “Summer” Games via the NORCECA Continental Cup competition, Diaz and Gonzalez scored a 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) win in 37 minutes to eliminate Doppler and Horst, who placed ninth in this year’s Olympics after placing 19th at the London 2012 quadrennial.
Playing the Austrians for the first time, Diaz and Gonzalez only trailed twice in the match with second set deficits of 1-0 and 2-1. With the second set tied at 6-6, the Cubans closed out the match with a 15-8 run where Doppler and Horst never threaten Diaz and Gonzalez.
The Cubans, who are playing in their second international event outside of their NORCECA confederation, have now won four straight matches on Copacabana highlighted by Pool D victories over highly-regarded pairs from Brazil, Canada and Latvia.
Diaz and Gonzalez, who have now secured Cuba’s best-ever Olympic Beach Volleyball finish with a guaranteed fifth, will now play Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Konstantin Semenov of Russia in the quarterfinals. Like the Cubans, Krasilnikov and Semenov have posted their country’s best Olympic beach volleyball placement.
Krasilnikov and Semenov are also 4-0 on Copacabana since the start of the Olympic competition Saturday with three Pool E victories and a 2-0 (21-13, 21-13) elimination win earlier Friday over Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse of Qatar in 32 minutes.
