Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 8, 2016 - For a two-hour period on Copacabana here Monday, it was an Austria celebration on the iconic beach where two teams from the “land-locked” European country posted back-to-back wins over Beach Volleyball powers Brazil and the United States at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
It all started when Austrian veterans Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst upset reigning FIVB world champions Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil 2-1 (23-21, 16-21, 15-13) in a 59-minute Pool A match and ended with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) Pool F win in 41 minutes by Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl over Americans Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson.
Both Austrian pairs had dropped their opening Olympic matches Saturday and were “big underdogs” entering Monday’s action, especially Huber and Seidl. In qualifying for the Copacabana quadrennial via the European Continental Cup competition, the young Austrians were playing in their first Olympics while Doppler and Horst were in the Summer Games for the third time.
Combined with Jefferson Santos Pereira/Cherif Younousse of Qatar’s upset of Spaniards Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera 2-1 (13-21, 21-18, 15-12) in 54 minutes earlier Monday, all four teams in Pool F are tied with 1-1 records entering Wednesday’s final group matches with only three advancing to the elimination rounds.
Pool F action concludes with Gibb/Patterson playing Gavira/Herrera with Huber/Seidl meeting Jefferson/Cherif. The Americans have won four of six international matches with Gavira/Herrera with Huber/Seidl defeating the Qatar pair once in the only meeting between the two teams.
