Knokke-Heist, August 16, 2019 – Anshel Ver Eecke and Tim Lemmens sent the home crowd into raptures of delight as they made a winning start at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Knokke-Heist 1-Star tournament on Friday.
The Belgium pair defeated New Zealand’s Thomas Hartles and Alani Nicklin 2-0 (21-11, 21-18). It puts them in a position to win the pool when they play their second match against France’s Jérémy Silvestre and Timothée Platre on Saturday.
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A second victory will send the victory straight into the quarterfinals, but a defeat would leave them having to negotiate the round of 12.
The seaside resort close to the Dutch border is hosting a World Tour tournament for the first time and it is taking place at the Evenementenstrand event beach from August 15-18. The winning teams in Knokke-Heist will collect the €1,000 first-place prizes and claim 200 Tokyo 2020 Olympic points.
Fellow Belgians Lander Vandecaveye and Louis Vandecaveye also enjoyed a victory, 2-1 (21-16, 15-21, 15-13) over Sweden’s Peter Lundgren and Jakob Wijk Tegenrot. Austria’s Simon Frühbauer and Michael Murauer now stand between them and the quarterfinals after they defeated Kensuke Shoji and Masato Kurasaka 2-0 (21-18, 21-14).
In Pool A Yusuke Ishijima and Katsuhiro Shiratori of Japan and the Czech Republic’s Marcel Myslivecek and Martin Pihera will play for top spot, while in Pool B the Netherlands’ Yorick de Groot and Mees Blom will take on Austria’s Maximilian Trummer and Mathias Seiser.
