Czech beach girls win their first Major gold after rough start in the final
Most beach volleyball fans in the Austrian dominated crowd at the Vienna Major will probably grant this victory to Czech beach volleyball team Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova. In the absence of any strong local team in the women’s competition, the Vienna crowd chooses Ostrava winners Marketa and Barbora as their darlings for the last stages of the Beach Major Series event in Vienna (Austria).
And the crowd’s favorites have to go through a tough challenge in the final where they lose the first set against strong Fort Lauderdale winners Barbara Seixas and Fernanda Alves. After an early 10 point lead the Brazilians easily win 21:10. After winning the second set, Marketa and Barbora have another slow start in the tie-break. Again they recover from a 3 point deficit and win their first Major gold with a 15:12 in the decisive tie-break.
Asked about the disastrous start, Marketa Slukova admits:
“We lost on 10 and I had difficulties to hit the court. So we started quite from the bottom. We said those fans out here are really awesome and we really love to play here, let’s not embarrass ourselves anymore and let’s give a fight here.”
In our recent interview with Marketa, she had emphasized how important her long-term partnership and the team spirit with Barbora is. This is confirmed today after the match. After thanking coach Simon Nausch and team, Barbora says:
“I would like to thank Maki because she went all tournament with big pain in her shoulder. It was amazing what she did. I know she had big pain. Sometimes it didn’t look like that when she was smashing the ball.”
And to her partner Marketa:
“I would like to thank you very much for what you did today.”
European champions Madeleine Meppelink and Sanne Keizer (Netherlands) claimed the bronze medal after beating Carol Solberg Salgado and Maria Elisa Antonelli (Brazil) in two sets.
