Spain’s Alejandro Huerta and Adrian Gavira and Finland’s Anniina Parkkinen and Valma Prihti walked the tightrope before snatching the gold medals in the Volleyball World Beach Volley Pro Tour Challenge yesterday at the Nuvali Sands Court by Ayala Land in Santa Rosa, Laguna.
Huerta and Gavira went through three sets, 21-17, 19-21, 17-15, in disposing of crowd-favorite twins Joaquin and Javier Bello of England, and so did Parkkinen and Prihti against Lithuania’s Leva Dumbauskaite and Gerda Grudzinskaite, 17-21, 21-14, 15-11.
‘Adrian (Gavira) made an outstanding defense particularly in the deciding set and we kept everything close,’ Huerta said.
Italy’s Manuel Alfieri and Alex Ranghieri and Australia’s Stefanie Fejes and Jasmine Fleming, meanwhile, also went three sets in clinching the bronze medals..
Alfieri and Ranghieri rallied past Christoph Dressler and Philip Waller of Austria, 17-21, 21-18, 15-12, while Fejes and Fleming recovered from a sluggish opening set to defeat No. 45 Kylie Neuschaeferova and Martina Maixnerova of Czechia, 13-21, 21-15, 15-13.