Poland's Team Wins Katara Beach Volleyball Cup

Doha, March 14 (QNA) - Poland's Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl began the 2020 season in the best way possible by beating Mexico's Josue Gaxiola and Jose Rubio in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-Star Katara Beach Volleyball Cup gold medal match on Friday. The Polish pair defeated the Mexican duo 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 15-11) to claim their first World Tour gold as a pair. The tournament was organized by Qatar Volleyball Association in cooperation with Katara Cultural Village. It is the second of nine 4-Star events on the 2019-2020 calendar. After the end of the competitions, President of the Qatar Volleyball Association Ali Ghanem Al Kuwari crowned the Polish team with the championship cup and the gold medal. The runner-up won the silver medal, while the third place went to Italy's Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai who won the bronze after a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) victory over Brazil's Evandro Goncalves and Bruno Schmidt. They needed to hold their nerve after trailing early in the second set. However, a combination of Bryl's prowess at the net and Fijalek's swift footedness at the back of the court allowed them to fight back and control the rest of the match. Fijalek and Bryl teamed up at the start of 2017 and since then they have won four silvers in 2018, and one silver and two bronze in 2019. They are currently fifth in the FIVB Olympic Rankings which means they are well on course for a place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Fijalek appeared alongside Mariusz Prudel at London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016, but for Bryl it will be his first Olympic appearance. Gaxiola and Rubio may have missed out on their first World Tour gold, but silver is their first World Tour medal on their first Tour event outside Mexico. The pair won silver at the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball U16 World Championships, but since then they have competed predominantly on the NORCECA Tour in North and Central America, and the Caribbean. They enjoyed a stellar run in Doha. After they made it through pool play and the first two knockout rounds, they defeated reigning world champions Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov of Russia before going on to knock out Brazil's Bruno Schmidt and Evandro Goncalves who have two World Championships and one Olympic gold between them. The Italian duo travelled to Doha from a training camp in Fort Lauderdale and had shown some of their best beach volleyball until their defeat to Bryl and Fijalek in the semifinals. Four years ago, Lupo and Nicolai won silver at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games and they have already qualified for Tokyo 2020 via the FIVB World Olympic Qualification Tournament. Their bronze ends a barren run for the pair that stretched back to the 2018 Gstaad 5-Star where they finished third. (QNA)