Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 16, 2016 – Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas reached the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games beach volleyball women’s gold medal match by defeating the USA’s Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross 2-0 (22-20, 21-18) in the semifinals at the Copacabana Beach Venue on Tuesday.
On Wednesday they will meet Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst in the gold medal match, while Walsh Jennings and Ross will take on Brazil’s Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes in the bronze medal match.
Here’s what they said after the match….
Barbara Seixas, Brazil
“It feels indescribable. We knew that it was a really hard match for us because of their history in Olympic Games and we knew that we needed to be really focused and blinkered because all the press and everybody were saying they were favourites and we knew we had to focus on the actions we did because that is what we control.
“We were motivating each other and focusing on everything we do to stay together because we knew against them we had to pay attention all the time because they are a great team and we knew we had to be 100% all the time.
“Each tournament is a different one. The World Championship was also extraordinary and magical, but this is home. It’s special.
“Laura and Kira are an incredible team. They have been growing each tournament and have been together for many years, so that is good for team development. We have to pay attention for everything we do and prepare properly.
“This was history today. We are happy and all of Brazil is happy, but we must rest and focus for tomorrow.”
Kerri Walsh Jennings, USA
“I wasn’t afraid out there, it was very poor execution on my part in a very fundamental part of the game and we played a match against an amazing team. We never gave up, but we never got our space.
“We’ll be very proud to win tomorrow and we’ll have to give it everything, they probably had a night like we did today. I think Talita had some issues and I want to attack her and make her feel very uncomfortable, but I want to focus on my handling and everything else will take care of itself.”
April Ross, USA
“The roles have been reversed and I know I could have done a lot more. I’m beating myself up for missing a lot of digs and opportunities to keep us in the game to keep us ahead. We’re a team and we didn’t do it tonight.
“They played very well in defence and we had some definite opportunities to dig them and stop them scoring points and we didn’t take them.”
Quick links - FIVB in Rio: