Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas win historic beach volleyball medal
Canada’s Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas ran the table to win the gold medal at the Fuzhou Open in China on Sunday. It is the first-ever women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour medal for a Canadian team.
Broder and Valjas were victorious seven times including the final over Germany’s Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude which was settled by a score of 2-0 (21-17, 23-21).
“Gold is the colour, we wouldn’t have had it any other way. What a tournament, we battled through a lot of three sets yesterday and today. A lot of really tough opponents so it feels so good to come away on top,” said Victoria, BC’s Broder in an FIVB release.
“I don’t know if I can remember anything that just happened. I’m in shock. We had to come and bring our aggressive attacks because that’s our game and that’s how we win. Our confidence is really up as we had so many people cheering for us, sending these messages, our families, our friends, our coach, everyone is behind us and that’s what I think helped push us through this final game,” said Valjas, a Toronto native.
In the semi of the four day tournament, the Canadians were certain underdogs but advanced with a win over triple Olympic gold medallist Kerri Walsh and her current partner, London 2012 silver medallist April Ross.
Fuzhou opens the 2015 FIVB World Tour and also begins the Olympic qualification period for Rio 2016.
