Cuba finished as runner-up in the Pan American Under-17 Volleyball Cup, losing in the final to defending champion and now two-time champion Puerto Rico. Those two teams took the two tickets to the World Championship in the category that were awarded in the competition, held in Managua, with eight teams.
The boys from the largest of the Antilles lost a hard-fought first set, 25-23, and in the second, after commanding the scoreboard with authority, they were unable to preserve several stretches with three- and four-point leads. The Puerto Ricans, with Yan Carlos Cruz leading the offense, finished on top, 25-22.
In the third set, they managed to capitalize on the superiority they had shown at intervals in the previous two sets, which allowed them to be effective in attack, the team's best weapon, led once again by Víctor Contreras. That change of pace brought victory, 25-18.
It looked like the fourth set was going to be the easiest for the young Puerto Ricans, as they had a comfortable 16-11 lead at the second technical timeout. However, a Cuban reaction, in which the serve, the presence of the block and better organization of the game had a lot to do with it, brought the score to a 17-17 tie, and then 21-19, which foreshadowed a fifth set.
But problems in receiving and then passing disrupted the order they had achieved, giving their opponents six points to one in the final stretch. The result: 25-22 for the Porto Rican team.
These are experiences that are acquired, as both teams had ups and downs in the challenge, but the winners managed to control their adrenaline better, so as not to fail at key moments.
In any case, Cuba is back in another World Championship in this category, which will be held in the Qatari city of Doha in its next edition.
ON THE BEACH, FROM OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS TO WORLD CHAMPIONS
Sweden's David Ahman and Jonatan Helving defeated their compatriots Jacob Holting and Nilson Andersson in the second men's final between pairs from the same nation in the history of beach volleyball world championships.
It was 14 years ago, in 2011 in Rome, that Brazil staged its first final between pairs from the same country. That year, in Rome, the duo of Emmanuel Rego and Angelo Ceruti defeated the Brazilian pair of Marcio Araujo and Ricardo Santos. In the women's competition, the South American giant achieved this feat in the 2001 and 2015 tournaments.
In the final in the Australian city, the Olympic champions, who secured their tickets at the last minute by finishing third in the group stage with one win and two losses, won the match 25-23 and 21-19.
Their compatriots arrived on the heels of their third place in the world rankings and 11 sets won and only two lost in this World Cup call-up. That endorsement led many to believe that they would dethrone the kings of Paris-2024.
However, Ahman's spectacular defense and floating power at the net, who both hits on the second strike and deceives his opponents with excellent passes to Helving, leaving him free of blocks, bewitched his compatriots.
The bronze went to France's Rotar and Gouthier, who defeated Olympic runners-up Ehlers and Wickler of Germany.
Among the women, Tina Graudina and Anastasijas Samoilova made history in world competitions by putting Latvia on top of the podium for the first time. The silver went to Americans Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher, and the bronze was won by Brazilians Carol Solberg and Rebeca Cavalcanti.
