McHugh/Schumann defy Austria and Phnom Penh weather conditions.
The climate conditions were quite tough in Cambodia but in the end it was Australians Christopher McHugh and Damien Schumann who claimed their second FIVB World Tour gold medal at the FIVB 2-star in Phnom Penh. Damien Schumann about the extreme weather conditions:
“We feel completely stuffed. I haven’t felt like that in a long time. The weather was not too bad actually but the game itself is what really hurt. We had a good first set, then they had us in the second. We are so glad we got it done in two”.
In an exhausting second set, the Aussies took down Christoph Dressler and Alexander Huber of Austria to post a 21:16, 30:28 win. With their second World Tour title after Shepparton in 2017, the Australian team confirmed their great performance at last week’s Asian Championships in Udon Thani (Thailand) where they also topped the podium.
In the semifinals, McHugh and Schumann had defeated qualifiers Lukas Pfretzschner and Robin Sowa of Germany who won the bronze medal. In the second, all-Austrian semifinal Dressler and Huber had eliminated 19th-seeded Laurenz Leitner and Florian Schnetzer.
The next important World Tour stops will be a 3-star in Bandar Abbas (Iran) and a 4-star in Doha (Qatar). Check out the complete 2020 event calendar.
