Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 17, 2018 – Russia’s Maria Voronina and Mariia Bocharova, and Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig had good reason to celebrate on Wednesday when they won women’s and men’s gold at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
Voronina and Bocharova beat Italy’s Claudia Scampoli and Nicol Bertozzi 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) to claim their latest major age-grade title of 2018.
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Earlier in the year they won gold at the Nanjing 2018 FIVB U19 Beach Volleyball World Championships. They also topped the podium at the CEV U20 European Championships and made their debuts on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
Ahman and Hellvig also added more gold to their tallies after a 2-0 (22-20, 21-15) win over the Netherlands’ Matthew Immers and Yorick de Groot.
In July the Swedish pair were gold medallists at the CEV U18 European Championships and they also made their World Tour debuts at the Aydin 1-Star tournament in May.
Argentina’s Mauro Zelayeta and Bautista Amieva gave the home crowd something to cheer when they defeated Bence Attila Streli and Artur Hajos of Hungary 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) to win men’s bronze.
In the women’s bronze medal match Norway’s Frida Berntsen and Emilie Olimstad beat USA’s Devon Newberry and Lindsey Sparks 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 15-9).
Buenos Aires hosted the third edition of the Youth Olympics where the beach volleyball tournament took place at a temporary stadium in Green Park in the Palermo district from October 7-17. Thirty-two teams per gender took part.
Four years ago beach volleyball made its Youth Olympic Games debut at Nanjing 2014 where Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa and Ana Patricia Silva Ramos won women’s gold, and Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin won men’s gold.
