Credit: volleyball.org.au
Two new Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 champions were crowned on a perfect summer day in Torquay, with two Australian teams also claiming spots on the men’s and women’s podiums.
Thomas Hodges (South Australia) and Zachery Schubert (Victoria) scored their best ever result at the Elite 16 event, finishing second just behind the French team of Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat.
Olympic silver medalists Taliqua Clancy (Queensland) and Mariafe Artacho del Solar (Queensland) also took home a medal, defeating team USA of Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth in the women’s bronze medal final. USA’s Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng claimed gold defeating compatriots Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles in straight sets.
At their first Elite 16 final, Hodges and Schubert fell just short of their dream of gold, but didn’t go down without a fight, conceding defeat against France only after two hard-fought, close sets.
“Our minds run straight after the game thinking about what we could have done and what we should have done, but to be honest Gauthier-Rat played amazing. He shot us off the court,” Schubert said.
“It was a close game, we had our opportunities, we just didn’t quite take them, but it was an amazing tournament and we’ve got to be proud with second.”
“I’ll never forget these games,” added Hodges. “These were some of the best crowds I’ve ever played in front of, whether it’s beach or indoor.
They really helped us when we were down by a few points, the crowd got behind us, they reinvigorated us and they gave us energy. It was an amazing game and France played unbelievable. Torquay turned the weather on for us today so we couldn’t have asked for much more,” he said.
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The two Aussies came a long way, forming their partnership at the start of the year. In that period of time, they went from playing in the Beach Pro Tour third-tier, Future division, to standing on the podium at an Elite 16 event.
“We laughed about it before this event,” confessed Schubert. “We actually finished 12th at a Future event at the start of the year.”
“Tom has been the most supportive partner during this whole year. I came from a double knee surgery and I didn’t know whether I was going to play again. If you told me I would be here, playing for a gold medal and finishing second, I would have not believed you 12 months ago. It’s been an unbelievable season,” he said.
“We had to build a…
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