Cuban beach volleyball duo grabs second win in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Aug 10 (acn) We set the tempo with our abilities and power, only thus, a rival as strong as Latvia can be beaten, said Sergio Gonzalez and Nivaldo Diaz, members of the Cuban beach volleyball duo attending the 31st Olympic Games held in this city.
are a step away from the feat in the carioca event, which takes place until August 21.
Every time we get closer to our goal, noted the Caribbean players, who starred on Tuesday his second surprise by defeating 2-1 (22-20, 19-21 and 15-9) Latvians Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs at Copacabana beach.
The lefty Smedins won a bronze medal at London 2012 alongside Martins Plavins, while Samoilovs finished ninth four years ago as partner of Ruslans Sorokins, and in Beijing 2008 with Plavins himself.
We go step by step to reach our goal, which is quite ambitious, but I do not want to create expectations we cannot meet, Gonzalez stated.
Last Sunday, the Cuban pair defeated Brazilian second duet and this time they were the favorites of the home crowd, who celebrated his achieved points.
Leonides Regüeiferos, Cuban head coach, believes it is a very positive and encouraging result, because our only global reference was the 2015 Dutch championship where my pupils finished ninth.
The young but experienced coach recalled that their Brazilian and Latvians rivals appear in the top 10 in the world ranking, while Cubans are 74th.
Nivaldo and Sergio are multiple medalists at the NORCECA tour since 2013, champions at Veracruz 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games and finished third at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games.
Cuba´s next opponents are Canadians Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton in the final match of qualifying group D tomorrow.