Canada and Poland claim the gold medals at the U21 World Championships USA Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes take the bronze!!

The 2014 U21 World Championships medal winners

Larnaka, Cyprus, July 27, 2014 - Canada’s Sophie Bukovec and Tia Miric and Poland’s Michal Bryl and Kacper Kujawiak were crowned FIVB U21 world champions on Sunday evening in Larnaka.

Bukovec and Miric defeated Lithuania’s Ieva Dumbauskaite and Monika Povilaityte 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-10) in the final, while Bryl and Kujawiak beat Russian qualifiers Ilya Leshukov and Aleksandr Margiev 2-0 (21-16, 21-15).

The bronze medals at the FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships went to USA’s Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes and France’s Maxime Thierry and Romain Di Giantommaso.

Key points

·       Bryl and Kujawiak won back-tot-back gold in Larnaka. They also took first place at the U19 World Championships in 2012 in Cyprus.

·       Italy’s Francesco Giontella and Paolo Nicolai have been the only other team to win back-to-back gold at the U21 (2007, 2008).

·       Bukovec and Miric won their first career medal and also Canada’s first gold in a FIVB age group event.

·       Thiercy and Di Giantommaso claimed the first medal for France in the 13-year history of the U21 World Championships.

·       Claes and Hughes followed up U19 bronze last year with U21 bronze.

·       Dumbauskaite and Povilaityte have won both silver (U21) and gold (U19) in Larnaka.

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