The 4th stage of the 2016 Brazilian summer tour concluded on November 20th, and Brazilians Alvaro Filho/Saymon defeated the reigning Olympic, and FIVB World Tour, champions Alison/Bruno Schmidt 2-1 (22-20, 19-21, 15-13) in the final match. The tournament was played at at Parque Barigui and marked the second title of this year’s series for Alvaro Filho/Saymon – they also won in Brasilia earlier in the season.
In total, the duo have played in the championship game in each of the tour’s stops this season, with 2 silvers and 2 golds. They lead the overall series rankings with 1,520 points to just 1,000 from Alison/Bruno Schmidt.
“It is very rewarding to be playing alongside Saymon and it is an honour to play in a final against our role models Alison/Bruno Schmidt,” said an overjoyed Alvaro Filho on winning over the Rio 2016 gold medallists. “We all made a great step and I have to thank all our sponsors and the people who believe in this project.”
The pairing is a new one in Brazilian volleyball. Filho paired last year with Vitor Felipe for a ranking of 18th on the FIVB World Tour, while Saymon Barbosa previously played with Gustavo Carvalhaes and ranked 15th at last year’s World Tour. The two have paired up in hopes of cracking the Brazilian top 2 that currently is Alison/Bruno Schmidt and Evandro/Pedro Solberg, who tied for 9th at the Olympics.
“This shows that we can overcome every obstacle, as long as we have unity, focus and belief in God,” said Saymon on making it to four straight finals. “We have played in four consecutive finals, two second places and two first place victories. We never lost our focus on the podium and we always played our best to achieve good results.”
Vitor Felipe, playing now with Jo, came away with a 3rd-place finish with a 2-0 sweep over Leo Gomes/Ferramenta. It was the new pairing’s first podium, and they currently have 920 series points.
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