Saxton and Schalk earn beach bronze at Klagenfurt Major
In the lead up to Rio 2016, the Canadian duo of Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk won a bronze medal at the Klagenfurt Major, a FIVB Swatch Major Series stop in Austria.
In the bronze medal match, the Volleyball Canada duo headed to Brazil defeated Michal Bryl and Bartosz Losiak from Poland 2-1 (23-21, 17-21, 15-12), finishing the tournament in third place.
Saxton and Schalk went to the bronze medal match after a perfect campaign in the pool stage, with three victories over Martin Ermacora and Moritz Pristausz-Telsnigg (Austria); Martins Plavins and Haralds Regza (Latvia); and fellow Canadians Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter.
In the elimination matches, Team Canada defeated the Brazilians Alvaro Filho and Vitor Felipe (21-15, 21-19) and the Norwegians Christian Sorum and Anders Mol (21-16, 18-21, 15-13).
The first loss of the tournament suffered by Saxton and Schalk was in the semifinal match, where Latvian duo of Samoilovs and Smedins J beat Canada 2-1 (21-16, 18-21, 15-13).
This is the second bronze medal earned by Schalk and Saxton in a month. Earlier in July, the Canadian pair claimed third place medals at the Porec Major.
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Rio 2016 Olympians Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas; and Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter also represented Canada in the competition, along with Melissa Humana-Paredes and Taylor Pischke; and Sam Pedlow and Grant O’Gorman.
