Cuban beach volleyball duo sees winning streak cut short in Cancun

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 30 (ACN) The second Cuban duo of Lidianny Echeverría and Yanileydis Sánchez lost their unbeaten record on Thursday, when they lost in their second match corresponding to the main draw of the best 32 at the third stop of the world beach volleyball circuit, held in Cancun.

According to the website www.fivb.com, the Cubans were defeated tonight 0-2 by the Dutch Van Iersel-Ypma, with a score of 14-21 and 21-23, a result that put them in second place in pool H, with a balance of two wins and one loss.

However, today they will continue their actions in the Mexican seaside resort, looking to continue adding points for the ranking of the world and try to be included among the 16 best couples that will seek to discuss the medals on May 2.

At noon today, the pair of Echeverria-Sanchez won 2-0 (21-16 and 21-12) against the Chinese Wang-Xi, while on Wednesday, they debuted in the qualifying phase with a 2-0 success (21-17 and 21-11) against the Dutch Shoon-Stam.

The top duo of Cuba (A) of Leila Martinez-Daylen Delis split honors on Wednesday with a 2-0 (21-11, 21-18) win against the Israeli pair of Dave and Starnikov, but then fell 0-2 (18-21, 21-23) to Norway's Lunde-Olimstad.

The Cubans were in the two previous stops in Cancun, with the best results for Echeverria and Sanchez, who finished ninth in the first one, with 400 points, four wins and two loses, as did Martinez and Delis, but with the same amount of units, four wins and one loss.

The difference between both teams is in the second stop, since Cuba's B team finished seventeenth, with 320 points, three wins and two losses, while the A team fell in its debut and was out of the competition from the first day, but reached 40 points.

These competitions will be used to score points for the world ranking and to prepare for the pre-Olympic of the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean (Norceca), to be held in Colima, Mexico, from June 24 to 27.

In order to attend Tokyo, it is mandatory to accumulate 12 tournaments, a figure that Martínez and Delís will meet in the Bulgarian competition.