Volleyball Update: SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championship- Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals
This year, 46 women teams battled for supremacy in the SWATCH FIVB Under-19 Youth World Championship, which was organised in the city of Porto, in Portugal. The event was full of thrilling competitions of world’s very best women beach volleyball players. The competitive women’s teams demonstrated great set of skills in serving, passing, setting, and attacking their opponents. The fans thoroughly enjoyed the excellent blocking and digging of beach volleyball babes.
The five days of fun and mayhem finally ended on 1st of August and concluded the winners, runner-up duo, and the struggling third place team.
1-Jane Croson/Summer Ross: Gold Medallist
This season brought a lot of luck for the young third-seeded American pair, Jane Croson and Summer Ross, who managed to bring the gold-medal to U.S.A. Croson is originally from Lakewood, California and she is only 16-years old, while her partner Ross is 17 and belongs to the coastal resort city of Carlsbad. They have honoured U.S.A with the first gold-medal in this event, which is obviously a big achievement.
The 3rd-seeded Croson/Ross obtained the fifth spot in this event last year which happened at Alanya, Turkey. Although they failed to climb to the top position last year but they set a direction for themselves and put sincere efforts to improve their game. This was how they had been able to reach the “final four” stage in SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championship 2010.
They had to overcome the muscular Russian Karapischenko and Ushkova in order to win the final game. The game started and Croson/Ross was able to generate good pace from the very start. They defeated the Russians in the first set, and then they lost the second set but came back in the game in the third set. The won the gold-medal and ended up with a perfect 7-0 record in the championship.
2-Ekaterina Karapischenko/Maria Ushkova: Runner up
Karapischenko and Ushkova of Russia were very confident to dominate Croson/Ross of United States but they could only help to finish in the runner-up category. Karapischenko and Ushkova pulled off second and third position in this event last year in Turkey but they were attached to different partners though. In 2008, Karapischenko finished third in Netherlands and her three medals make her stand apart from others, as she is the only young athlete to earn three medals in this event.
3-Taliqua Clancy/Eliza Hynes: Bronze Medallist
The Aussie team, consisting of 13th-seeded Taliqua Clancy and Eliza Hynes stood next in the overall positions of SWATCH FIVB Youth World Championship and claimed the bronze medal. They defeated 11th-seeded Rebecca Cavalcanti and Juliana Simoes of Brazil with two straight sets. They were able to post 21-13 and 21-11 in only 28 minutes. The Australian women set a record of 6-1 and it was the second medal going to the Land-down-under in the history of this event. There wasn’t any great stories on the Australian men’s side and they couldn’t even qualify for the “final four” matches. Brazil on other hand had five final four placements in the event.
Australia was pushed behind by the Croson/Ross pair in the semi-final match, where they made their way to the gold medal match by posting 22-20 and 21-12 barely in 34 minutes. In the similar fashion, Russia outplayed the Brazilian pair in other semi-final. It took them almost 30 minutes to win the game in two sets, 21-14 and 21-13.
This was how, the teams from Russia and US.A fought for the gold medal, while the other two teams, the Aussies and Brazilians, competed for the third position.
SWATCH FIVB’s next stop is in Alanya, Turkey, which will also feature many of these players who would be able to do well in the game.
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