Thu, Aug 14, 2008 page19

• Georgia defeats Russia in beach volleyball

  • AP
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  With a border war back home casting sobriety on the Olympics’ biggest beach party, Georgia rallied from a first-set blowout to beat Russia in beach volleyball yesterday.

  “We had to give extra for the Georgian people,” said Cristine Santanna after she and Andrezza Martins beat Alexandra Shiryaeva and Natalya Uryadova 10-21, 22-20, 15-12. “I give my strength to them. I fight here as they fight there.”
  
  

  The five-day battle between Russia and Georgia that killed hundreds, if not thousands, has turned Santanna and Martins — an obscure pair of Brazilians — into proxies for a war-torn people they barely know.
  
  

  

  Georgia’s Andrezza Martins, also known as Andrezza Rtvelo, bumps the ball during a beach volleyball match against Russia in Beijing yesterday.

  PHOTO: AP

  The native Brazilians, who shopped for new citizenship to circumvent a quota of two teams per country, preserved their chance at an Olympic medal and offered their adopted homeland hope for even more.
  
  

  “Today,” Santanna said, in an odd but moving mixture of former US president John F. Kennedy at the Berlin Wall and Lou Gehrig at his Yankee Stadium farewell, “I feel like I am a Georgian.”
  
  

  Santanna, who has made two short trips to Georgia to apply for a passport, said she slept poorly the night before, thinking about what the game meant to the people in Georgia who sent messages of encouragement.
  
  

  “I knew it was an important game to get out of the bracket, and I knew it was an important game for the Georgian people,” she said. “I think they are very proud of us.”
  
  

  Georgian volleyball federation president Levan Akhvlediani confirmed it.
  
  

  “It’s very important for the Georgian people to make a small happiness,” he said. “My answer is simple: Let’s fight on the fields, not outside of them.”
  
  

  In other women’s games, Natalie Cook and Tasmin Barnett improved to 3-0 while beating previously undefeated Brazilians Ana Paula and Larissa 23-21, 23-21. China’s Wang Jie and Tian Jia remained unbeaten by stopping Kathrine Maaseide and Susanne Glesnes of Norway 17-21, 21-14, 15-8. Liesbet van Breedam and Liesbeth Mouha of Belgium stayed alive by beating Simone Kuhn and Lea Schwer of Switzerland 21-18, 21-17.
  
  

  On the men’s side, the reigning world champions and heavily favored US team advanced to the medal round with a straight sets victory over Argentina. Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers won 21-12, 21-13 in just 39 minutes.
  
  

  Renato Gomes and Jorge Terceiro of Georgia beat Morais Santos Abreu and Emanuel Fernandes of Angola 21-14, 21-13.
  
  

  But it was the Georgia women’s match that took the spotlight.
  
  

  Dozens of reporters scurried around a media center that had previously been sleepy, as the beach volleyball competition moved sluggishly through the round-robin. Most were interested in little but whether the crisis in the South Ossetia region was on the players’ minds.
  
  

  “We just want to end the conflict. All the history between us was friendly,” Shiryaeva said.
  
  

  But as the post-match news conference came to a close, Uryadova snapped.
  
  

  “If they were Georgian, that certainly would have been an influence,” the Russian said, her arms folded at her waist. “But they are not.”
  
  

  The competition for the two Olympic berths allowed for each country is fierce in talent-rich Brazil, which if not for the country quota could have as many as seven entries in the 24-team women’s field. The Georgian men are also Brazilians by birth; just a handful of reporters were still there when they beat Angola in their round-robin finale.
  
  

  The men, Renato Gomes and Jorge Terceiro, put the nicknames “Geor” and “Gia” on their uniforms. Santanna and Martins went for Saka and Rtvelo — “Georgia,” in Georgian — out of affection for in the country emblazoned on their uniforms, their visors, their equipment bags.
  
  

  When Russian bombs began dropping and the Georgian athletes gathered in the Olympic village to return home, they were prepared to leave as well.
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