The Spanish are in Pool A alongside Mol/Sorum, Semenov/Leshukov and McHugh/Schumann
Published 10:00, 07 Jul 2021
When a draw takes place ahead of an international beach volleyball event, the teams that are typically considered the ‘winners’ are those that are placed in the same pool as opponents who are theoretically weaker.
Spanish Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera see it differently.
Going for their third edition of the Olympic Games together later this month in Tokyo, the veterans believe that facing strong competition right from the start could be an advantage, and that’s exactly what they got in Monday’s draw.
“It’s the Olympics, basically every team will enter the tournament aiming for a medal and we have two teams in our pool who will be strong contenders,” Gavira explained. “We want to fight for a medal too and to do their we’d have to play teams of their caliber at some point, so it's best do it sooner rather than later. These matches will give us a pretty good idea of where we stand and if we manage to win, that will give us a lot of confidence going forward.”
The teams mentioned by Gavira as medal contenders are top seeds Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway and Russians Konstantin Semenov, a Rio 2016 Olympic semifinalist, and Ilya Leshukov, who currently rank tenth in the world.
The three European teams are in Pool A in Tokyo alongside Australians Christopher McHugh and Damien Schumann, who were among the strongest teams to be part in Pot 4 of the drawing of lots ceremony. Herrera and Gavira have played all three opponents multiple times on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and although they have a 2-1 win record against the Russians, they’ve lost two of their three meetings with the Norwegians and Australians.
“It’s a very tough pool, it will be complicated,” Gavira reflected. “Mol and Sorum are obviously one of the best teams in the world and are medal favourites. The Russians are in great form and recently won a silver medal in Cancun. And the Australians play a very unique style with a lot of hits on two and jump sets. They’re always difficult to play against. These will all be tough matches but also fun ones.”
Herrera, an Athens 2004 Olympic silver medallist, and Gavira are currently in Gstaad, where they will play in their last FIVB World Tour event ahead of the Olympics. They are in Pool G and will debut against Dutch Olympic medallists Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen. Semenov and Leshukov are part of the same pool and could potentially be their opponents in the tournament.
Regardless of which teams cross their path, the Spanish expect to have a long run in the Swiss Alps so they can make the trip to Tokyo in good form.
“Gstaad is a very special tournament for us and it was where we won our first World Tour medal together back in 2009,” Gavira added. “We haven’t competed a lot this year so it will be an important tournament for us to get our rhythm and head to Tokyo in good form.”
