New champions crowned at Glenelg

ABVT

10/11/2024

Super Sunday presented clear skies and exciting action for a fantastic crowd at Adelaide’s Glenelg Beach as the medals were decided at the opening round of the 2024/25 Australian Beach Volleyball Tour.

Saturday’s quarter-finals ensured new combinations would taste success for the first time however the form guide held true with some of the top seeded teams claiming the titles.

Solomon Bushby (SA) was in top form on his home beach as he teamed with Queensland’s Ben Hood to claim the pair’s first national tour victory.

The top seeds looked in ominous form in their semi-final victory over Rob Reeves (QLD) and Matt Abela (VIC) and carried the favourite’s tag into their gold medal match against Victoria’s Garang Anyang and Justin Schumann.

Bushby and Hood took an early advantage on the scoreboard and were able to hold onto it as they raced through the first set 21-15.

While their Victorian opponents stepped up on both sides of the court in the second set, Bushby and Hood matched them by going up a gear to claim the second in just 13 minutes and earn the Glenelg title.

“I’m so excited to win my first gold medal at home,” said Bushby. “I could see some friends and family around so I’m just super excited that I could perform in front of them which was really cool.

“We’re really excited with our performance this event. Not dropping a set and keeping teams pretty low on the score which is something we’ve been working really hard on in training.

The pair fly out of the country later tonight to play a series of Beach Pro Tour events as they commence a big 12 months which they hope will culminate in qualification for the World Championships in Adelaide next November.

“We’re really enjoying playing together,” said Hood. “We’ve got a big block [of tournaments in Asia] ahead of us – hopefully we can keep the momentum going.

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Following the men’s final, Women’s second seeds Anna Donlan (VIC) and Lucie Šauerová (VIC) wasted no time taking an early advantage in their gold medal match, taking a one set lead in 17 minutes.

While the Victorians had the confidence, Malgorzata Rzepka (SA) and Camila Franchi (SA) had the home town crowd behind them and cut back their errors to send the match into a decider.

With both teams playing in their first-ever gold medal match, the South Australian duo jumped out to a 4-1 lead early but Donlan and Šauerová would not go down quietly.

Rzepka and Franchi were able to maintain their advantage with a high sideout rate to eventually prevail 15-11 and take their first Tour gold.

“The dream came true!” said Franchi. “That was the goal, to make it to Super Sunday.

“And to make it to gold at our home courts here in Glenelg in front of our family and friends was just something incredible.

“A big shoutout to Tom Kruger who has been patient with us when preparing us and been really good with his time for us to make few more tactics and go through a little other things than just playing whatever beach volleyball we could play.

Having gone down a set in fairly quick fashion, Rzepka said they just wanted to stay positive and concentrate on enjoying their time on court together in what was the biggest match of theit career.

“Why not just put a smile on your face?” She said. “We got this far so we were just thinking ‘have fun’ and keep supporting each other help each other on court, and off court as well.”

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Earlier in the day, Reeves and Abela came from a set down to defeat Chris McHugh (SA) and Daniel Piggott (WA) in the men’s clash for bronze, while WA’s Kyla Sanchez and Jolie du Plessis took down Queensland’s Bec Ingram and Matisse Conlon to earn their first ABVT podium.

Tomorrow sees the start of the Australian Junior Beach Volleyball Tour at Glenelg which will be played on Monday and Tuesday, while the national tour resumes in February with the second round in Canberra.