Ios, Greece, June 16, 2019. Dimitra Manavi and Konstantina Tsopoulou defended their top seed entry of the tournament to claim women's gold in the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament on the Cycladic island of Ios following a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) sweep of Romania's Beata Vaida/Ioana-Alexandra Ordean who had come into the Main Draw from the qualifiers. Meanwhile in the men's tournament, France's Florian Gosselin/Jérémy Silvestre took Ios by storm, sailing through the qualifiers, brushing off all opposition in the Main Draw and then, on Sunday afternoon, winning top seeds Maxim Sivolap/Artem Yarzutkin of Russia 2-1 (21-16, 15-21, 15-12) in the final to claim the gold medal.
It is the first gold medal for the Greek pair, who had previously bagged two bronze and a silver at World Tour 1-Star tournaments. “We have heard our national anthem before in smaller competitions, but this time it was especially emotional,” said Manavi after the awarding ceremony on the breathtaking Mylopotas Beach.
“The gold medal could not have come at a better moment, as it is just a week before the Continental Cup, which gives us a huge psychological boost for that competition,” added her teammate Tsopoulou.
The Greeks finished the Ios tournament undefeated and only dropped a single set in their opening game.
The Greeks celebrate together with their home crowd.
For the Romanians it was their best performance as a pair, after a fourth-place finish at the Tuan Chau Island 1-Star earlier this year in Vietnam.
Earlier on Sunday afternoon, England's Anaya Evans/Ellie Austin, also in through the qualification round, had shut out Sofia Ögren/Camilla Nilsson of Sweden 2-0 (21-17, 22-20) for the bronze medal.
In the men's tournament the French pair, who played together for the first time on Ios' spectacular Mylopotas Beach, won their two qualification matches and both their pool play games, before beating the Czech Republic's Filip Habr/David Lenc 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 15-10) in the semifinals earlier on Sunday.
For Silvestre, this is his second gold medal in a World Tour, after winning the Siofok 1-Star tournament last year with his previous partner Romain Di Giantommaso.
One of the successful episodes for France at Sunday's final.
“It is fantastic to win gold, considering we have been playing together for just three weeks and before this tournament we had not played a single match as a team,” said Gosselin.
“The level of the competition was higher than I expected and even in the qualifiers we faced some challenges,” added his team mate Silvestre. “The wind created a few problems for me, but I had great support from my teammate and together we adapted our tactics to achieve this success.”
Habr and Lenc ended up with the consolation prize of bronze at Ios, after coming back from a set down to edge Austria's Felix Friedl/Maximilian Trummer 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 15-11) in the third-place final.
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