
Gstaad, Switzerland, July 12, 2018 - After winning their fourth FIVB World Tour gold medal this season last week in Espinho, Australians Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy are looking to validate their Portuguese success with another beach volleyball title this weekend in Gstaad in the Swiss Alps.
Quick links - Beach volleyball:
Seeded fourth in the $600,000 Gstaad Major, Artacho and Clancy won their eighth-straight FIVB World Tour match here Thursday with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-15)
Pool D win in 31 minutes over 13th-seeded Carolina Horta/Taiana Lima of Brazil to advance to Friday afternoon’s second round of elimination.
With six-straight wins last week in Espinho highlighted by a 2-0 (23-21, 21-17) gold medal win in 37 minutes over Maria Antonelli and Carolina Salgado of Brazil, Artacho and Clancy started their Gstaad title quest Wednesday with a 2-0 (21-11, 21-13) victory in 28 minutes over 29th-seeded qualifiers Azusa Futami/Akiko Hasegawa of Japan.
Playing their first full-season together, Artacho and Clancy have a 33-7 match record and are currently tied for sixth on the FIVB World Tour rankings based on a team’s best eight (8) results at FIVB recognized events over the last 365 days. On the 2017-2018 World Tour points list, the Australians rank second behind Antonelli and Carolina.
Australian golden girls Natalie Cook (left) and Kerri Pottharst after winning the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
In the final two women's matches Thursday on center court, North American pairs of second-seeded Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson of Canada (Pool B) and ninth-seeded Alix Klineman/April Ross of the United States (Pool H) over Switzerland's top two teams.
The women’s Gstaad Major features pool two rounds of elimination bracket play Friday, quarterfinal matches Saturday and the final four rounds Sunday.
The men schedule has two elimination rounds Friday with the semi-finals and medal matches Saturday. The winning teams per gender will share the
$40,000 first-place prizes.