RECIFE, Brazil — The avalanche was coming, and all however two in Recife, Brazil believed it could possibly be held again.
These two go by the names of Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz, a pair of sensational Cuban gamers who banged and bruised their strategy to the finals of the Recife Problem, one thundering spike after the following.
Attempt as they could — and certainly, they tried all of it — there was no stopping Arthur Mariano, Evandro Goncalves, and the inevitable onslaught of aces off his proper hand, the demise that had met each staff earlier than them. They invited the gang into the combo, by no means the wisest thought in Brazil, with the singing and dancing and chanting throng of 1000’s.
They bought booed.
They began scorching.
Evandro bought hotter.
They peppered aces down the road.
Evandro accepted the problem.
He aced them extra.
Leads that stretched to 4 at one level for Cuba within the second set melted away faster than the acai in bowls up and down the stands. Six instances would Evandro ace Cuba within the finals in Brazil’s 21-15, 21-18 win, operating his complete to a mind-melting 37 for the event — 22 greater than the following closest competitor, and eight extra by the No. 2 (Alayo) and No. 3 (Tri Bourne) mixed.
“Greatest server ever,” Bourne stated as Evandro pounded an untouchable heater down Alayo’s line within the second set. Bourne would know in addition to anybody. It was Evandro and Arthur who knocked out Bourne and Chaim Schalk within the earlier night time’s quarterfinals. They did a nice job on Evandro.
They held him to solely, oh, 5 aces, his second lowest complete for the event.
These are the varieties of performances Brazilian gamers are wont to placed on at dwelling. Evandro and Arthur’s first gold medal as a staff got here rather less than a 12 months in the past, on the Saquarema Problem. Of the 5 tournaments held in Itapema, 4 have been received by Brazilians, the final three in a row to George Wanderley and Andre Loyola.
“Once we play at dwelling it feels wonderful,” Evandro stated. “It looks like dwelling. It’s particular.”
Tina Graudina, Anastasija Samoilova win second gold
Such a sense is just not reserved just for Brazilians. The gang is probably the best within the sport, a singing, swaying, cheering, bouncing bunch who lined the sidewalk to get into the stadium at 6:30 on Sunday morning. There wasn’t an empty seat the complete day, save for the two-hour intermission between the semifinals and medal rounds. And even when there are not any Brazilian groups within the hunt, as there weren’t in the course of the ladies’s medal matches and males’s bronze, it’s irrespective of.
They’ll undertake a staff as their very own.
Tina Graudina, the previous USC nice, and Anastasija Samoilova turned honorary, if not non permanent, locals this week. The Latvians received each match they performed, capping an undefeated week with a 21-18, 21-17 sweep over Canadian Cinderellas Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley for gold.
After they motioned for the gang to do the wave, they fortunately obliged. Then they did so once more. And once more. For nonetheless lengthy Graudina and Samoilova wished to bask within the victory.
“It’s so good to win in Brazil,” stated Samoilova, whose solely different gold medal got here within the Philippines final fall.
“I’ll always remember this,” Graudina added.
Neither, for that matter, will Bansley and Bukovec. Their silver medal is a most sudden one, climbing from Thursday’s qualifier all the best way into the finals, knocking off top-seeded Brazilians Taina Silva and Victoria Lopes within the course of.
“Manifesting,” Bukovec stated all week. And he or she manifested it into the primary Problem or Elite16 medal of her and Bansley’s nascent partnership.
The partnerships for each bronze medalists, Aine Raupelyte and Monika Paulikiene of Lithuania and Javier and Joaquin Bello of England, aren’t nascent. The previous have performed collectively for a full season and counting, the latter have by no means performed with anybody else.
But by no means earlier than had Lithuania stood on a Problem or Elite16 podium.
Sunday modified that for Paulikiene and Raupelyte, as they upset Germans Karla Borger and Sandra Ittlinger for bronze, successful 21-14, 17-21, 15-9.
“Obrigado, Brazil,” an emotional Paulikiene unhappy afterwards, placing her palms to her coronary heart. “That’s it. That’s it.”
A medal spherical look for the Bellos, alternatively, is turning into fairly the norm. 3 times of their final 5 tournaments have they made the semifinals, twice coming dwelling with bronze. On Sunday, they topped Chase Budinger and Miles Evans in a 26-24, 15-21, 15-13 thriller. When requested what their plans had been subsequent, Joaquin, the youthful of the twins by a couple of minutes, shrugged and stated to relaxation.
The subsequent event, down the street in Saquarema, beckons.
The place Evandro, and seashore volleyball, looks like dwelling.