Acapulco, Mexico, July 20, 2014 — Crowning
an already amazing adventure thousands of miles from their homeland,
Switzerland’s Florian Breer/Yves Haussener to defeat Spain’s Oscar
Jimenez/Alejandro Huerta to win the cherished gold medal to conclude the inaugural
double-gender FIVB Beach Volleyball U17 World Championships being held in
Acapulco, Mexico.
With an overflow crowd cheering every point the entire day at the Playa
Tamarindos event site, earning the final spot on the Acapulco podium prior to
the gold medal matches was France’s Marc Darrieux/Timothee Platre who defeated
Canada’s Jordan Pereira/Taryq Sani
Starting with a men’s field of 25 teams representing each of the five FIVB
Confederations four were still standing to play in Sunday’s semifinals, bronze
medal and gold medal matches. With three countries in the final four from the
European Confederation (CEV) (France, Spain, Switzerland), Canada is from the
North and Central America Confederation (NORCECA).
SWITZERLAND’s GOLDEN MOMENT
In the men’s gold medal finale between unbeaten teams both with 7-0
records, Switzerland’s Breer, 15/Haussener, 16, both of Basel continued to
remain focused, taking one point at a time to finally overcome Spain’s
Jimenez/Huerta, both 16 and both living in Tenerife in three glorious beach
volleyball sets, 22-20, 20-22 and 15-11 in 56 minutes. Switzerland’s Breer was
selected the men’s Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
Switzerland’s gold medalists Breer/Haussener duo were unblemished in the
tournament, going 8-0 with elimination round wins over teams from Russian,
Italy and Canada before their tournament-ending victory over Spain.
Spain’s silver medalists Jimenez/Huerta duo was unbeaten in pool play at 4-0
with elimination round wins over teams from the USA, Netherlands and France
before losing in the final to leave Acapulco with a 7-1 record in addition to
their medals.
As challenging as the tournament was for these young athletes, the climatic
gold medal match was the pinnacle of friendly competition as the two teams that
train together frequently and are friends off of the court were relentless on
the court Sunday. The final edge might have been that Switzerland’s
Breer/Haussener have been playing as a team for nearly three years.
Playing the first two sets like they knew each other, which of course they do
as they have not only trained together but played before in competition with
Spain winning the last meeting in pool play at the European qualification
tournament for this event, they split the first two sets with both going to
overtime.
Switzerland’s Breer/Haussener played with poise and patience, doggedly dodging
situations that could have turned the third and deciding set around. The third
set was tied eight times up to 10-10 when scored three straight points and
after another of Spain’s Huerta’s numerous kills, Switzerland score the final
two points on a Haussener kill off of Jimenez and the match ended dramatically
with Breer’s block of a Huerta kill attempt.
SWISS PLAYERS COMMENTS
Switzerland’s gold-medal winning Breer remarked between sighs of relief and
outbursts of joy, “Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. We take our sport
very serious and to receive a reward like this is so amazing I almost can’t put
it into words. We finished second in the European qualifying tournament
for this event, but we were still sure of ourselves and that we could play well
and do a good job. For Switzerland and our coach this gold medal is a big thank
you.”
With his sentiments between huge gulps of water, Switzerland’s other gold medal
winner Haussener reflected, “This was a tough, tough match. The Spanish guys
would never quit, but we didn’t think they would. We stayed calm as
possible and we were able to take advantage when we could and it was just enough
to win this wonderful championship. I hope we have many more in the
future, and we are really happy to be able to have a wild card in one FIVB
World Tour event.
BRONZE TO FRANCE
In the men’s bronze medal match for the final spot on the podium, what turned
out to be closer than expected because of their semifinal losses, France’s Marc
Darrieux/Timothee Platre fell behind in both sets and came back to defeat
Canada’s Sharone Vernon Evans/Parvir Jhajj, 26-24, 21-19 in 42 minutes.
In the first set of the bronze medal match, France’s Darrieux/Platre clawed
their way back in after being down to Canada’s Evans/Jhajj 6-1 at the start of
the set. After that, Canada still led 12-9 at the technical time out, before
France rallied to squeek by in the first set, 26-24 by scoring the final two
points.
In the second set, Canada kept fighting, ahead 11-10 at the technical time out
and scored the next two points for a 13-10 lead before France battled back
again to take the lead and eventually win the set and the match to secure the
special medal from the first-time event.
France’s Darrieux/Platre duo won the bronze medal match and leave with a 6-2
record, having eliminated teams from Costa Rica and the United States in the
elimination rounds before the semifinal loss to Spain who gave them their only
other loss in Acapulco.
Canada’s Evans/Jhajj tandem finished in fourth place a 5-2 record, unbeaten in
pool play followed by elimination round victories over teams from Mexico and
Poland before their semifinal loss to Switzerland and bronze medal setback to
France.