Four medals secured in Rancagua on the CSV Beach Volleyball South American Tour with help from Volleyball Empowerment support

Pairs from countries whose beach volleyball programmes benefit from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment support claimed four of the six medals at last week’s CSV Beach Volleyball South American Tour stop in Rancagua, Chile.

Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt of Chile delighted the huge home crowds on the stands with the men’s gold, while Uruguay’s Hans Hannibal and Nicolas Llambias took the silver. Meanwhile, Paraguay’s Michelle Valiente and Giuliana Poletti, and Erika Bobadilla and Fiorella Nunez earned gold and bronze respectively in the women’s tournament.

Chile’s beach volleyball programme has so far been granted CHF 9,500 worth of beach volleyball equipment from Volleyball Empowerment, as well as CHF 72,000 in coach support, with Brazilian coach Adriano Bonina Cerqueira leading the national duos.

Uruguay’s beach volleyball has received a total of CHF 19,000 in volleyball equipment and CHF 267,000 in coach support, with their national pairs being coached by Juan Cartagena of Puerto Rica.

The women’s national beach volleyball teams of Paraguay have so far received a total of CHF 9,000 in beach volleyball equipment, CHF 5,000 for national team coaches development and CHF 180,000 in coach support from Volleyball Empowerment. Paraguay’s women’s national duos are coached by Lucelia Batista de Almeida.

The top-seeded Grimalt cousins lived up to their status and reached the men’s final without losing a set along the way. Their path to the gold medal showdown was crowned by a hard-fought 2-0 (21-19, 28-26) semifinal win over Brazil’s Rafael Andrew Lima de Carvalho and Johann Ferdinand Dohmann.

Fifth-seeded pair from Uruguay Hannibal and Llambias also reached the final undefeated, but went through tie-breaker resolutions in all of their knockout matches. In the semifinals, they mounted a 2-1 (14-21, 21-16, 15-11) comeback against third-seeded Nicolas Capogrosso and Tomas Capogrosso from Argentina.

The gold medal game (pictured in the main photo; credits: Matias Escobar M. / fevochi.cl) also offered a three-set battle, in which after almost an hour of play, Grimalt and Grimalt celebrated a 2-1 (16-21, 21-16, 15-10) turnaround to top the men’s podium.

The Capogrosso duos took home the bronze after a 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) sweep of the third-place match against Lima de Carvalho and Dohmann.

Seeded ninth in the women’s bracket, Valiente and Poletti made a perfect run through the tournament in Rancagua, winning all five of their matches in straight sets to pick up the trophy. In the semifinals, they met third-seeded compatriots Bobadilla and Nunez and delivered a 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) victory.

Second-seeded Ana Gallay and Brenda Churin of Argentina, who had beaten top-seeded Brazilians Natasha Valente Bastos and Giulia Gavio by a tight 2-0 (23-21, 21-19) score in the semifinals, could not stop Valiente and Poletti in the gold medal duel. The victors from Paraguay achieved a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) win and topped the continental podium for the first time in their journey as a competing duo.

Bobadilla and Nunez secured Paraguay another place on the podium by producing a 2-1 (17-21, 21-11, 15-11) comeback in the bronze medal game against Natasha and Giulia.

All results and standings

A total of 15 women’s and 14 men’s duos from eight countries took part in the event. The next stop on the CSV Beach Volleyball South American Tour will be in Montevideo, Uruguay from 1 to 3 March.