Rio 2016 Olympians, Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and Taliqua Clancy and 2018 Commonwealth Games champions, Damien Schumann and Chris McHugh have taken out the women’s and men’s crowns at the 2021 Australian Beach Volleyball Championships on Sunday.
The tournament also doubled as the third leg of the 2021 Australian Beach Volleyball Tour (ABVT), earning all teams valuable points as part of the four-leg tour.
Del Solar and Clancy had to mount a spectacular comeback to beat fellow Olympians and defending Australian Champions Nikki Laird and Becchara Palmer 2-1 (17-21, 21-16, 15-9). The three-set final was a local champions showdown as both Del Solar and Laird started their careers on Manly beach.
“[Laird/Palmer] came out hard so we had to turn it on,” Del Solar said. “We stayed really patient and just trusted the process. I am glad that we turned it around.”
“We always had good communication throughout the game and that really helped us to get on the same page and turn [the match] around in the second set. We’ve always had great trust and we always know that no matter what the situation is, if we are behind, we can come back,” Clancy added.
In the men’s gold medal match, Schumann and McHugh faced Thomas Hodges and Paul Burnett. Burnett was the defending Australian champion, having won the 2020 title paired with 23-year-old Queenslander Marcus Ferguson. Despite being forced to a third set, Schumann and McHugh prevailed with a 2-1 score (21-15, 17-21, 15-9 ) to secure the national title and their third ABVT gold medal in a row.
“It’s always exciting to have a three-setter for the decider at the Australian Championships,” McHugh said. “It's great that we got to play and for Volleyball Australia to put the tour on this year has been a fantastic achievement. I couldn’t be happier that we came away with the win.”
“Australian Champions sounds really nice,” echoed his teammate Schumann.
Earlier in the day, it took over an hour for 2020 Australian National Championships runner-ups Michaela Mokrohajska and Lucia Michalovicova to win the women’s bronze.
The Northern Beaches pair eventually edged number-4 seed Phoebe Bell and Jess Ngauamo 2-1 (21-17, 17-21, 20-18) in an epic tie-break for a spot on the podium.
In the men’s final for bronze, Tokyo Olympic hopefuls Zachary Schubert and Max Guehrer confidently outplayed number-8 seed Casey Grice and Aaron Crook 2-0 (21-12, 21-13) to secure third place.
The final of the Australian Beach Volleyball Tour will be held at Coolangatta beach, Gold Coast, from 12-14 March 2021.
For the full women's wrap - click HERE
For the full men's wrap - click HERE
For all results - click HERE
