Lausanne, Switzerland, July 8, 2018 - Russia and China completed a clean sweep of the women’s and men’s podiums as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 1-Star Anapa Open concluded on Sunday.
In the women’s final Daria Mastikova and Anastasia Petrunina took on Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina.
Reigning European U22 champions Makroguzova and Kholomina didn’t let up from the start and won 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) with an ace by Makroguzova’s sealing the result.
“We are very happy, especially since this is our first medal this season,” Makroguzova said. “I am especially happy that we remained focused and achieved our goal – the victory.”
Ekaterina Birlova and Evgenia Ukolova completed the podium by winning bronze with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) victory over Ksenia Dabizha and Yulia Abalakina in another all-Russian match.
China’s Ha Likejiang and Wu Jiaxin beat compatriots Li Zhuoxin and Zhou Chaowei 2-1 (15-21, 21-18, 15-13) in the men’s gold medal match.
“We are really happy with this victory since we achieved the goal we had coming here,” Wu said.
In the men’s bronze medal match the third Chinese team, Peng Gao and Yang Li, beat Russia’s Ivan Golovin and Taras Myskiv 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-12) to complete a Chinese sweep of the men’s podium.