The Hague, The Netherlands, June 30, 2015 - After Americans Tri Bourne and John Hyden protected their pool seeding here Monday on the sand at The Hofvijver stadium court, Beach Volleyball pairs from The Netherlands and Germany duplicated the feat Tuesday evening with group clinching victories over tandems from Cuba and Canada during the fifth day of competition in the 2015 FIVB “senior” World Championships.
Bourne and Hyden posted a 3-0 mark in Pool I to earn their spot in the 32-team elimination bracket where play starts Wednesday at the four world championships sites in The Netherlands, including Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam. The women’s side of the competition at The Hofvijver stadium court concluded group play earlier Tuesday with pairs from Brazil and Spain joining a team from The Netherlands as pool winners.
In men’s Pool A, top-seeded Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst of The Netherlands out-lasted 48th-seeded Nivaldo Diaz and Sergio Gonzalez of Cuba 2-1 (21-17, 18-21, 16-14) in 52 minutes to win the group. Both teams were unbeaten after scoring earlier world championship wins over teams from El Salvador and Poland. Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz, the 24th-seeded team in Pool A from Poland, claimed the third spot in the group by defeating 25th-seeded Carlos Escobar and David Vargas of El Salvador 2-0 (21-6, 21-11) in 32 minutes.
Eighth-seeded Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik of Germany defeated 17th-seeded Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk of Canada 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) in 39 minutes to win Pool H. Like Pool A and I, both teams were 2-0 in group play entering Tuesday action. The Germans win was also their fifth-straight win over Saxton and Schalk in as many meetings on the FIVB World Tour.
Seeded 32nd-seeded in the world championships, France’s Youssef Krou and Edouard Rowlandson secured the third spot in the Pool H with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) win in 37 minutes over 41st-seeded Grant Goldschmidt/Leo Williams of South Africa. The French dropped a heart-breaking three-setter to the Germans Monday as Rowlandson was slowed by a leg injury in the deciding set.
Pool play for the 48 teams in each gender’s competition concluded Tuesday with the elimination rounds beginning Wednesday leading to the medal matches July 4 for women and July 5 for men. In addition to playing for the $60,000 first-place prize money, the 2015 FIVB World Championships will also reward the country with the gold medal team a berth in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.