Poland and USA crowned as WUC Beach Volleyball Champions

PARNU – The 8th WUC Beach Volleyball that was held in Pärnu has ended with USA women and Polish men triumphing.

The finals took place in rainy weather conditions in Estonia’s summer capital. Despite the bad climate the games were intriguing. Medal matches started with a Sweden and Spain clash. On one side of the net there were the twinsisters Thurin’s from Northern Europe and on the other side Southern-Europeans Paula Gutierrez Soria and Angela Herrero Lobato. At first everything seemed to go the twins way. The Swedish pair won the first set 21-19 and had two match balls in the second. The Spanish duo rescued themselves and after that controlled the game. They won the second set 22-20 and sprinted 4-0 lead in the third. The final score was 15-8. Soria and Lobato won the bronze medals for a second WUC Beach Volleyball in a row.

The same happened in the men’s bronze medal game where Thomas Kunert/Christoph Dressler from Austria defeated 2-1 (21-18, 17-21, 17-15) Norwegian pair Hendrik Mol/Lars Fredrik Tvinde and repeated their success from two years ago in Portugal. „It was a really tough game. It was very difficult to play in the wind. Yesterday we were little bit disappointed beacause of the loss in semi-finals but now we are really happy that we won the bronze medal,” the Austrians said.

And then the stage was ready for the main games – the final matches of the 8th WUC Beach Volleyball. The All American game for the women’s first place ended within 27 minutes. Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes beat another twins duo. This time it was the Witt’s. The match ended with the score 21-16, 21-13. „To bring this gold medal home fore USA – we couldn’t be happier,” the world champions stated.

The very last game held in Pärnu beach ended with Michal Bryl and Kacper Kujawiak’s triumph who owerpowered Swiss team Gabriel Kissling and Michiel Zandbergen 22-20, 21-12. „It is an unbelieveable feeling that we won the tournament. We worked so hard for this,” was the winners first comment. Bryl and Kujawiak are now three time world champions – they won the World Youth Championships in 2012 and Under 21 competition in 2014. Last year they also triumphed in European under 22 championships.

Next Edition: Munich

„Congratulations to winners! And I think we are all winners. It was a great week and a huge honour for Pärnu to host the WUC Beach Volleyball,” said the President of the Organising Committee, the Mayor of Pärnu Mr. Romek Kosenkranius in the closing ceremony.

FISU 1st Vice-President Leonz Eder also congratulated all the people who helped to organise this wonderful event. „Despite changing and difficult weather conditions we had great time here in Pärnu,” he said and continued in Estonian: „Hea töö korraldajad! Aitäh, Eesti! Aitäh, Pärnu! (Great job, organisers! Thank you Estonia! Thank you Pärnu!”

So the 8th WUC Beach Volleyball Championships are officially over. Next time we’ll meet in Munich in 2018!

(Source: WUC Beach Volleyball OC)

RESULTS

Men’s tournaments results are  and final rankings

Women’s and final rankings