The Hague, the Netherlands, July 4, 2015 – Things couldn’t get any better for Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk on Saturday evening in The Hague. The 32-year old blocker won gold at the FIVB World Championships with her partner Barbara Seixas for the first time ànd she was voted best player of the tournament.
“For me this is crazy, I have got my head in the clouds”, Bednarczuk said. “I can’t believe. I don’t have words for this moment.”
She came a long way, she said. “I started in 2005 when I was still a young girl and I have grown step-by-step, year-by-year. And now I have my very beautiful and very nice teammate Barbara. I am very happy she is my partner.”
Silver medallist and fellow Brazilian Fernanda Alves received the award for best spiker. Bronze medallists Maria Antonelli and Juliana Felisberta were also rewarded for their outstanding performance. Antonelli was voted best server and her teammate Juliana received an award as best scorer.
The title for best blocker went to Germany’s Ilka Semmler. She and Katrin Holtwick lost the bronze medal match to Brazil and she could really use a pick-me-up.
“I am pretty happy with it”, Semmler said. “I didn’t know that there was a competition for best tournament blocker. I had a good tournament in blocking, but I didn’t know that my score was that high that I could beat all the other great blockers in the tournament. That is something at least that I can take home from The Hague and the World Championships and it’s nice to finish the day with this.”
Dutch player Marleen van Iersel, who was eliminated in the second knockout round, turned out to be the fastest server of the women’s World Championship with 78 km/h. “I am really happy with it”, she said. “It’s fun, I think for the crowd also, that we have a little Dutch delight here. So, yeah, I am really happy.”