Vienna, Austria, July 29, 2017 – Seven countries are making their FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships debuts in the 2017 edition of the tournament, in Vienna. Some of them, though, had tougher paths in the tournament as they were drawn to face some of the best teams in the world in their first matches in the Danube Island.
That was definitely the case for Mozambique’s Aldevino Nguvo/Justino Tovela and Sierra Leone’s Abubakarr Kamara/Lombie Patrick, who booked their places in the tournament through the African qualifications and started their first-ever World Championships campaigns taking on the teams that played in the gold medal match of Rio 2016 Olympic Games last year.
The 44th-seeded Nguvo and Tovela, who combine for four FIVB World Tour appearances, could not stop reigning Olympic and world champions Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt of Brazil on their debut on Pool E and were defeated 2-0 (21-13, 21-13). More important than the result, however, was the opportunity to interact and learn from the Brazilians.
“We learned a lot and we’ll definitely take lessons from this match and try to use them in the following games”, Nguvo said afterwards. “They are very nice people and we had the opportunity to talk to them before the match outside the court. These guys are our idols, we really like them. We’ve seen many videos of them on Youtube and it was nice to interact with them here. Despite of the result, we are pleased about the way we played”.
The 20-year-old Kamara and Lombie, the 38th-seeded, did not have better luck against defending European champions and Rio 2016 silver medalists Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai of Italy, losing in straight sets (21-7, 21-8). The Sierra Leone duo, which competed in the 2015 and 2016 editions of the FIVB U21 World Championships, is proud of its achievements, but aware of what they need to progress.
“It was a long journey to be here”, Lombie commented after the match. “This is our first chance to expose ourselves in this kind of tournament and we have to show our case. Here we have the opportunity to compete against players that we really admire. Nicolai is my favorite player. Since I started playing, he is mentor and someone who inspires me. My family, my friends, they were all watching us and they are really proud that we are playing at this stage. This is our first time and we still have a long way to go, but we will not relent. After this we need to step back, correct our mistakes and keep moving forward. Our dream is to compete in the World Tour”.
Mozambique's Lombie Patrick plays his idol, the Italian Paolo Nicolai
The other countries which are competing in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships for the first time are Colombia, Iran, Kenya, Rwanda and Trinidad & Tobago.