Moscow, Russia, June 1, 2017 - With a “new” Olympic cycle starting for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games, two of the “young” teams on the FIVB World Tour from Brazil and Russia will be meeting each other here Thursday afternoon after each pair won opening mid-day matches in the US$150,000 international Beach Volleyball event.
In opening Pool B matches at the Vodny Stadium Beach Sports Centre, second-seeded Saymon Barbosa/Alvaro Filho of Brazil and 15th-seeded Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin of Russia posted victories over pairs from the Czech Republic and Latvia to secure a Thursday afternoon confrontation between the two teams with the winners earning the group title and a “bye” for the first-round of elimination Friday.
Alvaro Filho (left) and Saymon Barbosa of Brazil
The 23-year old Saymon and his 26-year old partner Alvaro out-lasted 31st-seeded qualifiers Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner of the Czech Republic 2-1 (26-24, 17-21, 16-14) in 54 minutes after the 20-year old Stoyanovskiy and 21-year old Yarzutkin posted a 2-0 (26-24, 21-13) victory in 32 minutes over 18th-seeded Martins Plavins/Haralds Regza of Latvia.
Both pairs have impressive credentials to date as Alvaro and Saymon captured the 2017 season-opening event on the FIVB World Tour in the United States at the SWATCH Major Series stop in south Florida at Fort Lauderdale before placing fifth two weekends ago at the Rio Open. Overall, the Brazilians have a 12-1 match mark this season with their only setback being a three-setter to Rio Olympic silver medal winners Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai of Italy.
The Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic champions, Stoyanovskiy and Yarzutkin are playing for the fourth-time in the Moscow event and the 22nd-time overall on the international circuit. The young Russians have two FIVB World Tour medals to their credit along with a 41-40 match record.
In addition to their Youth Olympic gold medal, Stoyanovskiy and Yarzutkin were instrumental in securing a second spot for a Russian men’s team in the Rio 2016 Summer Games after winning five of seven matches during the Continental Cup qualifier last July in Sochi, Russia.
In addition to the Brazil vs. Russia match on center court, another contest between “talent young” teams will be played on an outer court when 25th-seeded qualifiers Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway challenge 24th-seeded Maciej Rudol/Jakub Szalankiewicz of Poland.
Norway's Anders Berntsen Mol (left) and Christian Sorum
The 19-year old Mol and 21-year old Sorum upset Russian Olympians and eighth-seeded Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Nikita Liamin of Russia 2-0 (27-25, 21-17) in 41 minutes to open play Thursday while the 23-year old Rudol and 28-year old Szalankiewicz upset ninth-seeded and 25-year oldcompatriots Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak 2-0 (22-20, 21-19) in 44 minutes.
