The second edition of the World University Beachvolley Championships took place under trying weather conditions: 40° in the shade with a high degree of humidity. Participants won’t soon forget it…
Volleyball has been one of the mandatory Universiade sports for quite some time, but the “Beach Volleyball” variant is just getting started in the FISU sports programmes. For the first time in 2002, France initiated the World University Beach Volleyball Championships in Guadeloupe, and gained noteworthy success for participation in this first edition. 20 countries met in Guadeloupe represented by a remarkable 121 participants. The enthusiasm showed so plainly in the very first edition has encouraged other Associations to apply to organize the future WUC in this sport – Thailand hosted the championships this year, and Cyprus will do the same in 2006.
There can be no doubt that this is a very attractive sport, if only for the lovely sites proposed for the meets. In 2004, the full measure of this aspect was clear since the town of Songkhla, in the south of the country was the site chosen by the Thai University Sports Association. This lovely seaside resort, popular with tourists from the whole world round, has its own university that offered its facilities for contestants in the championships.
Men’s Finals
For the men, two teams stood out in the championships, the French duo Filisetti-Damez (FRA1) and the Indonesian team Ardianshah-Prasetyo. So, understandably, they met in the finals. But things are never that simple. With 17 teams signed up for the men’s competition, the Organizing Committee, with the support of the technical delegates, did its best to ensure that as many matches as possible would be played. So the two finalists had to put up quite a fight to guarantee their rungs on the podium. They reached the top of the Round Robin easily, winning all their games.
But the quarter and semi-finals were something else. The Belgian team got in the way by trouncing the Indonesians (2-0) who had been so impressive to that point, and besting the French less decisively (2-1). Too bad for them, the Belgians couldn’t keep it up – they bowed three times to the same Indonesian team in the semi-finals. The French had to overcome the Germans Beck-Winter (GER2) to move up after a long, drawn out rivalry that they finally won in 3 sets.
So Sébastien Filisetti and Denis Damez then met Germany 1 in the exceptionally intense, emotional semi-finals played to the local French university professors, among others. After a first set in French favour with a score of 21/19 and a second for the Germans with the same score, the 3rd set was a real trial for both athletes and fans. The initial advantage want to the French in 2 excellent serves, but this was voided by the successful strategy of the very hardworking German team.
At 14/11 for Germany, French chances were looking slim. But for the second time in the tournament, the French managed the impossible: 2 firey serves from Denis and a block by Sébastien cracked the German defence, ending in a score of 18/16 and a ticket to the finals. These too were hard work for the French team. Despite the Indonesian domination in the first game (21/13), the Filisetti-Damez team pulled itself back together, as it had in the morning at a score of 15/15 against the Germans. But they still were unable to make the point that would have brought them to a decisive 18/15.
After that, the Indonesians did not make a single mistake, concluding the match with 22/20. The game for the third place was clear cut. The German team Karger-Lammens (GER1) frankly overpowered the Belgians Coucke-De Beleyr, winning the match and the bronze medal in two sets and 35 minutes.
Women’s Finals
For the ladies, suspense and uncertainty were the key words in this tournament that offered a wonderful show, full of spectacular comebacks. The home team Jarunee-Yupa (THA1) was among the contestants for the podium. After they were eliminated in the morning by the Czech pair Klapalova-Petrova, the Thai ladies were determined to please the crown with a very effective game for the bronze medal, against Americans Lindquist-Zartman. The home team had no trouble setting the pace, and took the game in two short sets in just 23 minutes.
The final was more of a challenge. The Chinese girls Zhang-Zhang (CHN1) met the Czechs Klapalova-Petrova in a match that lasted more than an hour. The Chinese edged by with the first set at (21-19). The second suspenseful set ended in favour of the Czechs with a neck-to-neck 24-22! Finally, Klapalova-Petrova managed to come out ahead in another very close set with 16 points to 14
