FIVB Bandar Anzali One Star
- Men’s Only
- Bandar Anzali, Iran
- Schedule/Results
After earning a silver medal at the Babolsar One-Star last week, Kazakhstan’s Alexey Sidorenko and Alexandr Dyachenko earned their country’s first ever FIVB Beach World Tour gold medal at the Caspian Sea Series Bandar Anzli One Star on Friday.
The Kazakhs won the opening stanza over homestanding Bahman Saleminjeboroun/Arash Vakali 21-18, and took the match without further play as Vakali suffered an injury forcing the team to withdraw. The contest was a rematch of last week’s championship match in Babolsar, which the Iranians won 21-19, 21-19.
Sidorenko/Dyachenko won both of their pool play matches, taking Pool C with a 21-7, 21-8 win over Italy’s Emanuele Monduzzi/Antonio Basti and a tiebreak victory over Iran’s Abbas Pouragasi/Alireza Aghajanighasab (21-15, 10-21, 15-11).
In the quarterfinals, the pair swept countrymen Sergey Bogatu/Dmitriy Yakovlev (21-19, 23-21). A tiebreak win over Pouragasi/Aghajanighasab in the semifinals (20-22, 21-15, 15-10) set up the team’s historic finals effort.
Sirodenko/Dyachenko finished third at the Asian Championships on Sept. 28 ahead of last week’s Babolsar One Star silver. The duo has played together on and off since 2009 in 64 events, including a gold at the AVC Beach Championships in 2013 and bronze at the 2011 AVC Championships and at the AVC Beach Continental Cup in 2016.
Iran’s Rahman Raoufi/Abolhamed Mirzaali rounded out the podium, taking the bronze medal with a 21-18, 21-17 win over Pourasgari/Aghajani.
Gold Medal Match
Sidorenko/Dyachenko def. Saleminjeboroun/Vakali 21-18, 21-0
Bronze Medal Match
Raoufi/Mirzaali def. Pourasgari/Aghajani 21-18, 21-17
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