Gold Medal Day in Xiamen

 Xiamen, China, April 22, 2018 - The men’s gold medal match will be an all-Russian affair between Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Nikita Liamin and Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Igor Velichko on the final day at the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Xiamen Open.

Quick links - FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour:
Xiamen - Website
Xiamen - Schedule and Results
Xiamen - Tournament Notes

Stoyanovskiy/Velichko team up for the first time in 2018 and got off to a quick start with silver in Doha. They are one of the youngest pairs in Xiamen, with Stoyanovskiy at 21 years old and Velichko at 22 years old.

Krasilnikov/Liamin won bronze at the Vienna World Championships in 2017 and finished ninth in Xiamen last year. They have been playing together since 2017 and are playing in their 14th FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. 

The two teams have never played each other on the FIVB World Tour.

Viacheslav Krasilnikov from Russia and Brazil's Alison Cerutti

The bronze medal match is between Brazil’s Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Piotr Kantor and Batorsz Losiak from Poland.

Alison/Bruno Schmidt are reigning Olympic Champions taking the gold in their home Olympics in Rio. Their best recent result was bronze at the Porec Major five-star last July.

Kantor/Losiak are top seeds in Xiamen and had a final four finish in the Hamburg 2017 World Tour Finals and took silver at The Hague’s FIVB 4-star event in January. The pair have played Xiamen once before, finishing fifth in 2015.

The odds are against the Polish pair, the two teams have played each other eight times before and Kantor/Losiak are yet to beat Alison/Bruno Schmidt.

Women’s Semifinals

First up in the semifinals will be Australia’s Mariafe Del Solar Artacho and Taliqua Clancy and USA’s Kelly Claes and Brittany Hochevar.
Artacho Del Solar/Clancy come off the back of silver at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and won the Sydney two-star and Qinzhou three-star at the end of 2017.

Brittany Hochevar (left) and Kelly Claes from the USA

Claes/Hochevar are playing in their first tournament together, but Hochevar is in Xiamen for a fifth time. The two teams played each other in the pool in Xiamen with Artacho Del Solar/Clancy taking the win.
The second semifinal will be Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes against Eduarda Santos Lisboa and Agatha Bednarczuk from Brazil.

Pavan/Humana-Paredes won gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and were on the World Tour podium multiple times in 2017.



Sarah Pavan (left) from Canada and Sarah
Hughes from the USA


Agatha/Duda are also no strangers to the podium and won silver at the Hamburg World Tour Finals in 2017. The pair are playing in their 12th FIVB World Tour together.
 
The two teams have played three times in the past, with Agatha/Duda winning twice.