Van de Velde & Immers of Netherlands also celebrate their first trophy on the Tour as a team
Agatha is back on top of the podium! 40-year-old Brazilian star Agatha Bednarczuk claimed her first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour gold medal. The 2015 world champion and 2016 Olympic silver medallist, who took a baby break after the end of 2021, when she was on top of the FIVB World Ranking (with Eduarda Santos Lisboa – Duda), and skipped the Tour’s inaugural 2022 season, claimed the trophy at the Chiang Mai Challenge in Thailand less than six months after her return to international competition. It was the first Beach Pro Tour gold for her current partner Rebecca Cavalcanti as well. Finland’s Taru Lahti-Liukkonen & Niina Ahtiainen and Canada’s Sarah Pavan & Molly McBain completed the women’s podium.
In the men’s tournament, Steven van de Velde & Matthew Immers of the Netherlands also won their first Beach Pro Tour gold. Poland’s Piotr Kantor & Jakub Zdybek took the silver and the bronze went to Chase Budinger & Miles Evans of the United States.
· Watch Chiang Mai Challenge replays on VBTV.
Agatha & Rebecca mastered an immaculate campaign in Chiang Mai. Seeded second in the women’s main draw, they went through the tournament on a six-game winning run without dropping a single set along the way, celebrating their first Beach Pro Tour gold and second overall podium, after the Espinho Challenge bronze in July. In one of Sunday’s semifinals, the Brazilians achieved a 2-0 (21-16, 22-20) win over another former world champion, Sarah Pavan, and her current teammate Molley McBain. In the final showdown, Agatha & Rebecca hammered out a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) shutout of Taru Lahti-Liukkonen & Niina Ahtiainen on an 18-point match high from Agatha, including five kill blocks.
Agatha/Rebecca vs. Ahtiainen/Lahti – Gold Match Highlights | Chiang Mai 2023 #BeachProTour
Seventh-seeded Lahti & Ahtiainen added the third podium to their Beach Pro Tour collection, after the gold medals at the 2022 Maldives Challenge and the 2023 Helsinki Futures. They had a tough campaign in Chiang Mai as their journey to the final consisted of five consecutive tie-breaker matches. They lost their opener to Japan’s Akiko Hasegawa & Miki Ishii, but then produced a four-game winning streak crowned by a hard-fought 2-1 (21-19, 20-22, 15-13) semifinal victory over 16th-seeded Dong Jie & Wang Fan of China. In this epic battle, Wang delivered six kill blocks…
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