Spain and Austria wrap up Saturday’s men’s competition

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 5, 2016 – #7 Seed Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain finish off the men’s first day of competition against #18 seed Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl of Austria.  Adrian is playing in his fourth Olympic Games, and he and Pablo are hoping to improve on their 9th-place finish in London while Alexander and Robin are playing in their first Olympic Games.

Head to Head

The two teams have only one previous meeting on the FIVB World Tour with Gavira/Herrera winning a pool play match against the Austrians, 21-19 and 21-15 in 40 minutes at The Hague Grand Slam in July, 2014.

Historically the #7 seed has won three of the four first-round matches in the Olympic Games and the #18 seed won a contender’s bracket second round match in Atlanta.  The #7 seed has won all three rally-scoring, pool play matches in the last three Olympics.  However the #18 seeds pulled off the upsets in Sydney (2000) with Canada’s Jody Holden/Conrad Leinemann defeating Rob Heidger/Kevin Wong of the United States, 17-15 in 60 minutes and Portugal’s Joao Brenha/Miguel Maia beating Argentina’s Martin Conde/Eduardo Martinez 15-5 in 35 minutes at the inaugural beach volleyball competition in Atlanta (1996)

Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera, Spain, Seed #7, Pool F, Qualified 7th with 5,500 Points in the 2015-16 Olympic qualification period

• Adrian: September 17, 1987 (28y10m20d), 193 cm (6’4″), 89 kg (198 lbs.), Hometown La Línea de la Concepción, 102nd FIVB World Tour event (ranks 67th), two gold medals, $510,625 career winnings (ranks 32nd)

• Pablo: June 29, 1982 (34y1m8d), 193 cm (6’4″), 88 kg (195 lbs.), Hometown Castellon de la Plana, 145th FIVB World Tour event, (ranks 16th), four gold medals, $661,775 career winnings (ranks 18th)

• Adrian and Pablo have been playing together since 2009. They are playing in their 82nd FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament together (ranks 18th), two gold medals, $949,700 career winnings (ranks 5th).  They rank second behind Poland’s Fijalek/Prudel (84) for playing the most events together of the men’s teams competing at the Rio Olympics.

• Adrian has played in 21 FIVB World Tour final fours …

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