It’s fairly common for players competing at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour to eventually cross paths with a former partner who’s now part of an opposing team. When Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk played each other on Friday, during the third 4-star event of the Cancun Hub, however, it was much more than just a regular meeting between players who once shared the same side of the court.
Saxton and Schalk built fantastic history together between 2013 and 2017, winning five medals for Canada in 55 World Tour tournaments and being one of the two teams that represented the country at the Rio 2016 Olympics, in which they finished ninth.
Schalk and Saxton represented Canada at the Rio 2016 OlympicsSince the start of 2020, they have become not only opponents but also players who represent different countries as the 35-year-old Schalk completed the process to switch federations and started playing for the United States, the country where his mother was born and he’s been living for the last several years.
When Schalk decided to make the move, he knew that a meeting between the two was inevitable and it happened for the first time at the Round of 24 of the third tournament in Cancun.
“I saw the draw a couple of hours before the match,” Schalk said. “When I saw him at the warm-up court I said ‘Yeah, it was bound to happen at some point, we might as well get it out of the way now’ and we joked about it. I have nothing but great respect for him. He’s a great player, a super nice guy and he’ll always be a really good friend.”
Schalk and his current partner Theo Brunner left the court with a better taste on their mouths as they defeated Saxton and teammate Grant O’Gorman to move on to the Round of 16, but the match was equally special for both of them.
“Chaim and I are still close,” the 32-year-old Saxton, nicknamed ‘Big Easy’, commented. “When I go to California for practice, I stay at his place sometimes. We get together and practice together when we’re at the same place and there’s still a very good relationship between the two of us and he’s a very good friend. It was a good competitive match, but they were on top of us today.”
Schalk and Saxton face each other at the net in CancunThe match brought a lot of different feelings on both players as even though they showed the great respect they have for each other, they also wanted to win, which brought some fire to it.
The deep knowledge they have about each other also came to play and generated points for both sides, but in the end, Schalk was just happy he managed to win the first of presumable several battles against his former partner.
“There was a lot of intensity,” Schalk analyzed. “Whenever you play someone you know their tendencies a little bit, it gives us a few points here and there and it was the same for them. They know what I like to do, I know what they like to do and it’s like a game of chess. It was especially different because it was my first time on the World Tour playing against Canada as an American. I had a couple of different things that I managed to get out of the way and I’m really glad that we got the win but it’s always going to be a battle against them.”
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Cancun Hub - 3rd event - Match schedule
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Source : volleyball.world
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