COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (September 1, 2021) – The U.S. Beach National Team has struck plenty of gold in 2021, and that continued last weekend as Emily Day and Betsi Flint won the Brno 2-star in Brno, Czech Republic.
Day/Flint went 6-0 at the FIVB World Tour event, winning 12 of 13 sets played. They capped the tournament with a dominant 2-0 (21-13, 21-8) win over Czech duo Martina Williams/Marie-Sara Stochlova.
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Brno was Flint’s first international event since November 2019. The pair didn’t play before the tour shut down due to the pandemic in 2020, and Flint missed the first part of the 2021 season after giving berth to her daughter Cora in January.
Day/Flint now have won two FIVB titles – they also won the Haiyang 3-star in 2018 – and both have tournament victories with other partners. Day won the Rubavu 2-star in July with Sara Hughes, and Flint won two tournaments with Kelley Kolinske in 2017.
The two recently took silver at the Manhattan Beach Open as well.
Up Next
There is one American team in competition this weekend as Tina Toghiyani and Jade Race will compete at the Koropove (Ukraine) 1-star Sept. 2-5. They’ll begin the tournament in the main draw. This will be Toghiyani’s second career FIVB event and Race’s third. They have not previously competed together.
Gold Rush 2021
Altogether, Americans have won nine gold medals on the FIVB World Tour and at the Olympic Games. The champions so far:
- Doha 4-star: Alix Klineman/April Ross
- Sofia 1-star (1): Corinne Quiggle/Allie Wheeler
- Sochi 4-star: Kelly Claes/Sarah Sponcil
- Ostrava 4-star: Kelly Claes/Sara Sponcil
- Rubavu 2-star: Emily Day/Sara Hughes
- Rubavu 2-star: Theo Brunner/Chaim Schalk
- Leuven 1-star: Crissy Jones/Zana Muno
- Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: Alix Klineman/April Ross
- Brno 1-star: Emily Day/Betsi Flint
Those nine golds are more than any other country on the tour this year; Brazil is second with four. Additionally, American duos have won one silver medal and five bronze medals. There are seven more chances for the U.S. medal in 2021: six 1-star tournaments and the FIVB World Tour Finals.
Three American Duos to Play in Tour Finals
Speaking of the FIVB World Tour Finals, three American teams have earned berths to the tournament that’ll take place in Cagliari, Italy, October 6-10: Klineman/Ross, Claes/Sponcil and Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb. All three received their spot based on the number of world ranking points they earned throughout the year. Two additional wild card teams per gender will round out the field; those teams will be announced later.