18/06/2017 19:57
“Golden Girls” at the Dela Beach Open in The Hague - Antonelli & Carolina
News from the FIVB
The Hague, The Netherlands, June 18, 2017. Maria Antonelli and Carolina Salgado became only the second women’s team in the history of the FIVB World Tour to win a gold medal after advancing through two rounds of qualification to gain a spot in the “money” rounds of an international Beach Volleyball event. They achieved this feat as the newly formed Brazilian pair topped the podium Sunday afternoon at the US$150,000 Dela Beach Open.
With their 2-0 (21-17, 21-11) gold medal win in 39 minutes over 17th-seeded Joana Heidrich/Anouk Vergé-Dépré of Switzerland, the 15th-seeded Antonelli and Carolina finished the Dela Open with a 9-0 match mark starting with two country quota wins Tuesday, a qualifying victory Wednesday, two “modified” pool play triumphs Thursday, an elimination success Friday, and quarter- and semi-final conquests Saturday.
The first team to win a FIVB World Tour gold medal after starting an event in the country quota round were Jennifer Kessy and April Ross of the United States in 2007 at an international stop in Norway. However, the Americans dropped two of three pool play matches in Stavanger before winning their final six matches in the Norwegian stop.
In securing their first gold medal in only their second FIVB World Tour event together, Antonelli and Carolina shared the $10,000 first-place prize while Heidrich and Vergé-Dépré split $8,000. Individually, Antonelli captured her 12th FIVB gold medal with a fourth different partner in 122 World Tour starts.
Following the match, Antonelli said her team had "good energy together; that is the reason we won all our matches here in The Hague.” Carolina agreed saying that “we help each other a lot. It does not matter if we win or if we lose, we have a good chemistry for sure. We are positive people, and we always think good things will happen. And I enjoy playing with her a lot.”
The top podium placement was Carolina’s third in 139 FIVB World Tour events. Her previous two gold medal finishes in 2008 and 2013 were with her sister Maria Clara. In all total, the Salgado family has claimed 21 FIVB World Tour gold medals with 17 by Pedro (Solberg) and one for mother Isabel.
“We are sad about the final but we can look back at a really good week. And I think this is what we have to take with us to the next tournaments and try to perform as we did yesterday and the days before,” Vergé-Dépré said.
To reach the Dela Beach Open gold medal match, Heidrich and Vergé-Dépré defeated fourth-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda “Duda” Lisboa of Brazil 2-1 (24-26, 21-17, 18-16) in a 62-minute semi-final match while Antonelli and Carolina were a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) winner over 10th-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan of Canada in 39 minutes.
In the Dela Beach Open women’s bronze medal match, Agatha and Duda posted a 2-1 (16-21, 21013, 15-11) win in 47 minutes over Humana-Paredes and Pavan. The Brazilians split $5,000 for their third-place finish with Humana-Paredes and Pavan sharing $4,000.
Following the Dela Beach Open, the international circuit takes a week off before resuming play with SWATCH Major Series stops in Croatia (Porec, June 27-July 2) and Switzerland (Gstaad, July 4-9). Highlighting the 2017 international calendar for men and women Beach Volleyball players will be the $1-million FIVB World Championships July 28 through August 6 in Vienna, Austria and the $800,000 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals August 23-27 in Hamburg, Germany.
For further information visit www.fivb.com
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