Barthelemy/Di Giantommaso, Walkenhorst/Winter on Upward Trend at Kish Island

Kish Island, Iran, February 22, 2018 – France’s Olivier Barthelemy/Romain Di Giantommaso and Germany’s Alexander Walkenhorst/Sven Winter have strengthened their grip to move up from qualification to the main draw’s second round of eliminations in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Kish Island 3-star at the Kish Marine Recreation Sports Complex on Thursday.

Barthelemy/Di Giantommaso outlasted Germany’s Julius Thole/Clemens Wickler 2-1 (16-21, 21-15, 15-10) in the first round after coming up with just one victory in pool play last Wednesday.

Walkenhorst/Winter, on the other hand, completed pool play with a straight-set win against Sweden, then followed it up with an exciting win in the first round against Latvia’s Rihards Finsters and Aleksandrs Solovejs 2-0 (30-28, 21-18).
Barthelemy/Di Giantommaso and Walkenhorst/Winter’s compatriots also made it through the next round. Maxime Thiercy/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat rallied from a set down to overcome USA’s Williams Kolinske/Miles Evans 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-6), while Nils Ehlers/Lorenz Schumann defeated Finland’s Jyrki Nurminen/Santeri Siren 2-1 (23-25, 21-19, 15-13).
Cristophe Dressler/Robin Seidl and Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz bannered the Austrian side by beating Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov/Vladyslav Iemelianchyk 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) and Qatar’s Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijian 2-1 (16-21, 21-17, 15-13), respectively.
Latvia’s Haralds Regza/Kristaps Smits and the Netherlands’ Dirk Boehle/Steven van de Velde completed the second round grid, following their respective victories over Slovenia’s Nejc Zemljak/Danijel Pokersnik 2-1 (14-21, 21-15, 15-13) and Norway’s Mathias Berntsen/Hendrik Nikolai Mol 2-0 (21-19, 21-17).