Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 6, 2016 - Two-time Olympian Jake Gibb had no problems playing with a new partner in the 2016 Summer Games here Saturday as he and American teammate Casey Patterson opened Pool F play by defeating Asian qualifiers Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse in two sets.
Gibb, who placed fifth at both the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games with Sean Rosenthal, and Patterson scored a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) win in 37 minutes over Jefferson and Cherif, who qualified for the Rio Games by winning the Asian confederation Continental Cup competition at the end of June in Australia.
The Americans only trailed once in the match at 0-1 at the start of the second set as the Gibb/Patterson combo had an “experience” edge in the match. The 40-year old Gibb and the 36-year old Patterson entered the quadrennial with 42 events and 220 FIVB World Tour matches under their belts. The 27-year old Jefferson and the 21-year old Cherif had only played in 12 FIVB events with 48 matches.
The two teams return to Olympic competition Monday with Gibb and Patterson playing Austrians Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl while Jefferson and Cherif challenging Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera of Spain. Like the Qatar team, Huber and Seidl qualified for the Rio Olympics by winning the European confederation’s Continental Cup event at the end of June in Norway.
