Agadir, Morocco, July 23, 2017 – Nicole Eiholzer and Dunja Gerson triumphed with their first gold from a top international competition. The second-seeded young Swiss pair maintained their winning streak throughout the entire one-star Agadir event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2017 and brought it all the way to the top of the podium at Plage Jour et Nuit on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. Eiholzer and Gerson’s best finish on the Tour so far had been a fifth place from the one-star tournament in Langkawi earlier this year.
The silver medals went to ninth-seeded Akiko Hasegawa and Azusa Futami from Japan. Fifth-seeded Lezana Placette and Aline Chamereau from France earned bronze. For each of these four players, this was the first international podium at the world or the continental level.
Gerson and Eiholzer (#1) rejoice with the victory in the final
In each set of the final match on Sunday afternoon, the story was almost identical. The Swiss maintained a slight lead from the start through the end of the set. On their second set point, Gerson found the empty spot on the opponents’ half with a well placed shot and closed it off victoriously – 2-0 (21-19, 21-18).
Placette and Chamereau did not waste any time in the third place match and rushed to a spot on the podium with a 29-minute 2-0 (21-9, 21-12) blowout against sixth-seeded Erika Sofia Mongelos Bobadilla and Gabriela Filippo from Paraguay.
Earliear on Sunday morning the two semifinals were played. After 51 minutes of playtime, including a hard-fought tie-breaker, Hasegawa and Futami claimed a 2-1 (21-15, 18-21, 15-13) victory over the French duo to dispose of yet another higher-seeded team on the way to the final.
The second semifinal was also a quick 29-minute one-sided affair. After a competitive beginning of the first set, Eiholzer and Gerson broke away and rushed into the gold medal match with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-7) win against Erika and Filippo.