Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries win U19 bronze medals in South America

Beach volleyball duos from countries benefitting from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment support claimed both the women’s and the men’s bronze medals at last week’s CSV U19 Beach Volleyball South American Tour stop in Paso de los Toros, Uruguay. Colombia’s Maria Lucrecia Gaviria Romero and Juliana Franco Acosta claimed gold in the women’s tournament while Chile’s Vicente Ignacio Belmar Diaz and Jorge Pablo Brain Zirpel claimed top spot in the men’s competition.

Colombia’s beach volleyball has so far been allocated CHF 72,000 worth of coach support from Volleyball Empowerment and their national teams have been coached by Cuban specialist Leonides Regueiferos Laborde.

Gaviria and Franco won four of their five matches on the way to the last four in Uruguay. In their semifinal, the Colombians suffered a 2-0 (21-13, 21-12) defeat at the hands of third-seeded Brazilians Julhia Perandre Furtado Alonan and Marcela de Souza Mattoso Barbosa, but bounced back with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) sweep of the bronze medal match against second-seeded Paraguayans Andrea Lujan Ortiz and Mayra Perez.

In the gold medal match, top-seeded Argentineans Ema Schnidrig and Victoria Sancer Navarro produced a narrow 2-1 (21-19, 12-21, 16-14) victory over Alonan and Barbosa to top the podium.

Women’s results and standings

The CSV U19 Beach Volleyball South American Tour Paso de los Toros medallists (Photo credits: CSV)

Chile’s beach volleyball has also received CHF 72,000 worth of coach support in addition to CHF 9,500 worth of beach volleyball equipment from Volleyball Empowerment, and Brazilian coach Adriano Bonina Cerqueira has been in charge of their national duos.

Diaz and Zirpel entered the Paso de los Toros men’s main draw as the top-seeded team and after a loss and a win in their pool and another win in the quarterfinals, they qualified for the semifinals. The second-seeded team from Brazil, Pedro Joaquim Brandao Ribeiro and Gabriel Teixeira Furquim Siqueira, mastered a 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) semifinal victory over the duo from Chile (pictured in the main photo; credits: CSV) and went on to claim gold after a 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) sweep of the final showdown against seventh-seeded Sebastian Alfredo Pereira Blanco and Eduardo David Rodriguez Hernandez, competing as an FIVB team.

Diaz and Zirpel recovered in the third-place match to snatch the bronze after a 2-0 (21-12, 21-18) win over third-seeded home pair Sebastian Rubio and Ignacio Rodriguez.

Men’s results and standings

The second and final stop on the 2024 CSV U19 Beach Volleyball South American Tour will take place in Ecuador from 29 to 31 March. The top five teams per gender from the two events combined will qualify for the 2024 FIVB U19 Beach Volleyball World Championships in Shangluo, China from 27 August to 1 September.