The Brazilian beach volleyball tour wrapped up its five-stop season last weekend in Cuiabá, the Panamerican Junior Games gave young teams from the Americas a chance to shine in Colombia and the FIVB Under 19 World Championships get started in Phuket, Thailand this week. All that news means it is time for another edition of the Dig It! Beach Volleyball Update.
Brazilian tour’s final stop of 2021
After five tournaments in three cities, Alvaro Filho & Evandro and Bárbara Seixas and Carol Solberg were crowned champions of the 2021 Brazilian circuit. The tour started last September and featured three events in Rio before moving to Itapema and finishing up last weekend in Cuiabá.
Fierce competition for Brazil’s men
Alvaro and Evandro got straight to work forging a new Brazilian power team after the Olympics. They finished on the podium at all five domestic tournaments but only won one gold. Their results were good enough to separate them from the three teams that finished tied for second place on the season. Andre & George, Alison & Guto and Vitor Felipe & Renato all finished 280 points behind. Vitor Felipe & Renato won three golds this season, but Renato played at the PanAm games with his brother last weekend, so they couldn’t add to their total.
For a full list of men’s and women’s rankings check out this link to the official CBV site
The winners in Cuiabá were Alison & Guto, winning for the first time in their new partnership. Brazil have plety of teams ready to make their mark on the Elite 16.
Consistent results get Barbara and Carolina the crown
Bárbara Seixas and Carol Solberg won the women’s title after taking silver the first three tournaments and gold in Itapema. Last week they took a bronze, but that was enough to hold off Rebecca & Talita, who won last weekend and ended up in second place for the season. Agatha and Duda won a gold and two bronze medals in the three domestic tournaments they played in this year.
Brazil dominates the Junior PanAm Games
Last week the PanAmerican Junior championships took place in Cali, Colombia. Teams from North and South America as well as the Caribbean competed in almost all of the Olympic sports. This event was for athletes between 17 and 22 years of age. In the beach volleyball world it was more Brazilian dominance.
Brothers Renato and Rafael Lima topped the men’s podium beating Cubans Luis Reyes and Noslen Diaz. Renato has already established himself as a top player in Brazil but he is expected to get even better. At 22 years of age, Reyes has won three NORCECA tournaments already. Mexico took bronze through Miguel Sarabia and Raymond Stephens.
On the women’s side, another Brazilian that has been making noise at the senior level claimed gold. Victoria Lopes took fourth at the Itapema four-star and won in Colombia with partner Thainara Feitosa. They beat Puerto Rico’s Maria Gonzalez and Allanis Navas in the gold medal match. The bronze medal went to Mexico’s Atenas Gutierrez and Esperanza Albarran. Thainara will compete in the World U-21 championships next week with Anne Karolayne. The pair won the South American U-21 tournament in August.
U-19 World Champs under way
The best young beach volleyball players in the world are competing this week in Phuket, Thailand. The men’s and women’s fields have 32 teams each in the main draw.
Russian phenomenon Mariia Bocharova is only 19 years old and she has already won eight European age group championships and the U-19 World Championship. She will play this week at the U-19 level and again next week at the U-21 with 17-year-old Elizaveta Gubina. They were pushed to the limit by the 2020 European U-20 champions Varvara Brailko and Anete Namike of Latvia. The Russians prevailed in pool B after a big scare, 19-21, 21-15, 15-13. For a story on Bocharova’s European dominance, check this out from the Beach Volley Blog archive.
American fans are looking forward to seeing how USC’s Meghan Kraft and Delayne Maple will perform. They came out of the qualifiers and absolutely crushed two higher seeded teams in the first two pool play matches 9-21, 11-21 and 11-21, 15-21.
The men’s tournament doesn’t have any teams we’ve profiled on the Beach Volley Blog yet. But future stars are sure to emerge as many of the top men’s players today got their starts at the U-19 level.