Lucerne, Switzerland, May 16, 2016 – George Souto Maior Wanderley (19) and Arthur Diego Mariano Lanci (20) claimed their second FIVB age-group gold at the FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships in Lucerne on Monday. The Brazilians defeated Josue Gaston Gaxiola Leyva and Jose Luis Rubio Camargo from Mexico 2-0 (21-17, 22-20) in the final.
It was a tight match against Gaxiola and Rubio, who are the first Mexican team to win a FIVB age-group medal. Strong blocking Rubio was voted most valuable player of the tournament and ruled at the net.
But the Brazilians found their way around the big block with well-placed shots to win the first set easily. In the second set Mexico took a two-point lead and seemed to have a chance to enforce a tiebreak, but in the end the Brazilians levelled to claim the gold at their second match point.
“It was a tight match again”, George said. “But we stick together all the time, against Russia in the quarterfinal, Venezuela in the semi’s. That’s the best thing we do, we stay together, even in the worst situations.”
The Brazilian pair had not played together since two years, since they won the U19 gold in Porto. “I think both finals were unique sensations, but this one is more valuable. The players have evolved, they are bigger, stronger. And we ended up on top.” All together Brazil has won five gold medals and ten medals in total now since the men’s U21’s started in 2001.
Venezuela ends up with the bronze again
Venezuela put their disappointment aside over letting Brazil escape in the semifinal and defeated Norway’s Anders Berntsen Mol and Mathias Berntsen 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) to win the bronze medal.
In 2014 the Venezuela pair also won bronze at the U19 in Porto after they lost the semifinal to George and Arthur. Their goal in Lucerne was gold.
Peter: “It was quite hard to lose the semifinal, but we wanted a medal. The Norwegians are a strong team and we had to stay focussed with our head on the game all the time.”
“We are happy coming up third, even though it’s not first or second. We are very proud to take home a medal to Venezuela and to have come this far.”
“I want to thank my coach and partner for suffering together and enjoying the good moments together”, Peter continued. “We are a good team and we work well together.”
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