Claudia Scampoli and Margherita Bianchin justified their top-seed at this week’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour one-star event in Sofia as the Italians ended three days of absolute domination with a pair of wins to secure the gold medal of the tournament on Sunday.
The 21-year-old Scampoli and the 25-year-old Bianchin ended the three-day competition with five victories and no sets dropped to find their way to the top of the podium. In the final, they defeated Canadians Sophie Bukovec and Camille Saxton 2-0 (21-12, 21-18).
It was the second World Tour title in seven events for the Italians, who had lost in the qualifier of this year’s first tournament in Sofia, back in May.
“We’re very glad we won,” Bianchin said. “The first time we played here we couldn’t bring our best performance and that made us start the season a little bit off. Winning here means we’re back on track. We had never played the Canadians before but our coach made a very good game plan which we executed well.”
Belgians Sarah Cools and Lisa van den Vonder took bronze after they secured a win by forfeit over Ukrainians Inna Makhno and Anna Shumeiko to finish third.
In the semifinals, Scampoli and Bianchin downed Cools and Van den Vonder in two sets (21-17, 21-19) while the Ukrainians were forced to exit the match against the Canadians after the conclusion of the first set due to an ankle injury suffered by Shumeiko.
Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Sofia Beach Open 3
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
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