15/08/2019 23:00
Sun, rain and high-level Beach Volleyball on Day 1 in Knokke-Heist
2019 World Tour 1-Star - Knokke-Heist
Knokke-Heist, Belgium, August 16, 2019. The Belgian weather tends to be very unpredictable and that is exactly what happened on Thursday when the historic FIVB World Tour 1-Star event got underway in Knokke-Heist. The participating teams of the qualification round had to play through both rainy and sunny conditions. The different wind speeds did not make it any easier to play either.
The women’s competition was the first to begin. As the qualifying round started, the first game ended early due to an injury sustained by the team from Sweden, Kristina and Susanna Thurin. As expected, the level of play was rather high. During the morning session, the fans saw a close game between Italy and USA. One of the Belgian home teams lost against Portugal, and youngsters from the Netherlands were on the losing side of a matchup with England.
The men’s side of this event started with two very close games. Dutchmen Tom van Steenis and Sven Vismans won against Norway’s Christian Helland/Jørn Olav Gamlemoen with a double 21-19. The same happened between Japan and Monaco, with the Asians emerging victorious 21-19 and 22-20.
As the day went on, all of the participating teams were very eager to win. Some of them enjoyed the support from fellow nationals who had already qualified for the main draw. People found their way onto the stands as soon as the sun broke through the clouds. Many tourists passed by and took a break from their vacation while watching the very first 1-Star World Tour event held in Belgium.
Round two of the qualification became spectacular. There were breath-taking rallies, many aces and many smashes. Three out of four games of the men’s competition ended in a tiebreak. On the women’s side, the games ended a bit faster. At the end of the day, eight teams were able to celebrate their qualification to the Main Draw:
Women
Sofia Starikov/Anita Dave (ISR)
Victoria Palmer/Jessica Grimson (ENG)
Chiara They/Arianna Barboni (ITA)
Cecilie Køllner Olsen/Sofia Nørager Bisgaard (DEN)
Men
Kensuke Shoji/Masato Kurasaka (JPN)
Alexey Gusev/Pavel Shustrov (RUS)
Maximilian Trummer/Mathias Seiser (AUT)
Peter Lundgren/Jakob Wijk Tegenrot (SWE)
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