Spain completed their second clean sweep of a sport’s gold medals and Japan picked up three golds on the fourth day of action at the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) World Beach Games Qatar 2019.
After dominating the Kata on Sunday, Spain clinched the men’s and the women’s Aquathlon gold medals in the waters off Katara Beach to sit atop the medal standings.
Kevin Vinuela (26:22) and Francisca Tous (29:38) were both crowned after physically taxing, fast races which consisted of a 2.5-kilometre run, a 750-metre swim and a second 2.5 kilometres run.
Mark Devay (HUN) nabbed silver in 26:29, with reigning world champion Rostislav Pevtsov (AZE) in third with a time of 26:43. On the women’s side, Azerbaijan’s Kseniia Levkovska took silver with a time of 30:03, followed by Antoanela Manac (ROU) with bronze in 30:17.
Monday was the busiest day to date, with 11 competitions including six medal events.
The story of the day involved one of the event’s oldest competitors, Vladimir Ryanzin, who showed age is no barrier to winning gold.
The 44-year-old Russian won the Waterskiing Jump with 59.9m, finishing ahead of Stepan Shpak, of Belarus, in second, and Chile’s Emile Ritter, who took bronze.
Belarus also took gold and bronze in the women’s event with Aliaksandra Danisheuskaya winning with a jump of 49.5m. Her compatriot, Hanna Straltsova, finished third, with Jutta Menestrina, of Finland, sandwiched in between for silver.
Women’s Wakeboard gold went to the Netherlands’ Sanne Meijer who fended off the challenge of silver medallist Alica Virag (ITA) and Jamie Lopina (USA), who took bronze.
Italy picked up their second gold of the Games in the men’s Wakeboard through Massimiliano Piffaretti, with Australia’s Cory Teunissen taking silver and Guenther Oka, of the USA, settling for bronze.
Four golds were up for grabs in Beach Wrestling, and they went the way of Brazil’s Kamila Barbosa (w 50kg), Colombia’s Tatiana Renteria (w 70kg), Georgia’s Levan Kelekhsashvili (m 70kg) and Pakistan’s Mohammad Inam (m 90kg).
Japan picked up their first gold of the Games when Miho Nonaka clinched the women’s Bouldering at Aspire. Switzerland’s Petra Klingler pipped Slovenia’s Urska Repusic to the silver medal.
And it wasn’t long before they claimed their second gold when Kai Harada won the men’s title, ahead of compatriot Keita Watabe in second and German Philipp Martin in third.
There was even more Japanese glory to come later on with Skateboarding gold and silver going Sakura Yosozumi and Kihana Ogawa who finished in the top two spots, with Spain’s Julia Benedetti rounding off the podium places.
Qatar continued to please their home fans in the Beach Volleyball by reaching Tuesday’s semi-finals following a superb 2-0 win over Chile. They will meet Poland in the last four. In the women’s, Brazil will meet Australia while the USA face Canada after all four won their quarter-finals.
The host country’s Beach Handball side followed their Volleyball teammates into their semi-finals after beating Australia 2-0 to set up a last-four showdown with Brazil. The other semi-final will involve Spain and Sweden. In the women’s, Brazil will take on Denmark and Vietnam face Hungary.
Elsewhere, the Beach Tennis held its quarter-finals with the Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Doubles all advancing to the semi-final stage on Tuesday.
The 3×3 Basketball continued to thrill big crowds at Katara Beach with the group games continuing. The final group games will be held Tuesday ahead of the knock-out stages on the final night.
Tuesday’s pen-ultimate day will see no less than five medal events in Aquathlon, Beach Wrestling, Beach Tennis, Kitefoil Racing and Skateboarding.
