Beach volleyball players Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler are right in the quarter-finals of their first Olympic Games. The duo from Hamburg won their last sixteen against the Americans Jacob Gibb and Tri Bourne on Monday evening 2: 1 (17:21, 21:15, 15:11). In the round of the best four there will be a new edition of the World Cup final of 2019 on Wednesday (3 p.m. CEST in the FAZ live ticker for the Olympics, on ZDF and on Eurosport), as Thole / Wickler in Hamburg the Russians Vyacheslav Krasilnikow and Oleg Stojanowski lost almost 1: 2. Olympic champion Laura Ludwig and her partner Margareta Kozuch are also among the top eight in Tokyo.
Against the old master Gibb and his interim partner Bourne, Thole / Wickler came into the game very slowly.
Because of a corona infection from Gibbs regular partner Taylor Crabb, the US duo has only recently played together.
What the two lacked in coordination, they made up for with commitment and eye.
Nevertheless, Thole / Wickler led 16:14 before the set fell in favor of the Americans due to carelessness on the German side.
Thole / Winkler were able to fend off a set ball, then the set was lost.
Unimpressed by the setback, Thole / Wickler first took the lead with two points at 4: 2 in the second round, three at 8: 5 and finally with four points at 12: 8.
The looseness and joy that had so characterized her in her first Olympic games was more palpable again.
At the end there was a smooth 21:15.
The Germans also had an early advantage in the decisive third set, a 5: 3 quickly turned into a 7: 4 and 10: 6. Thole / Wickler could not be disturbed anymore, they used the second match point to move into the next round. The Olympic adventure continues on Wednesday with the new edition of the World Cup finals.