PARIS — Chile advanced to the knockout round of the Paris Olympics beach volleyball tournament on Saturday when Canada’s Dan Dearing withdrew from their lucky loser match after three points because of a back injury.
“That’s part of sport. Sometimes injuries happen. Obviously horrific timing,” said Dearing’s partner, Sam Schachter. “It’s a nightmare for Dan and me and we want to be able to share that moment with our families and the crowd and get that Olympic spirit. But, obviously, it didn’t happen today.”
Dearing sustained the injury during practice on Saturday morning. He and Schachter took the sand for the match that pits third-place teams from pool play against each other to fill out the final spots in the round of 16.
After three points, with Chile winning two, it became obvious to Dearing that he couldn’t continue.
“Obviously, we’re frustrated,” Schachter said. “We want to be able to compete. It’s super-disappointing that we weren’t able to get Dan’s back to a place where he can compete. But we really tried our hardest.”
Chile advances to the round of 16 against one of the pool winners. Esteban Grimalt, who teams with his cousin, Marco Grimalt, said the teams are friends who trained together when they first arrived in Paris.
“It’s not the best way, of course. It’s a shame,” Esteban Grimalt said. “It was really unexpected and really sad, actually, because we saw the pain – not just the physical pain, also the emotional pain. And it’s hard to see a friend like that. So we hope, fast recovery and play again and in the next years.”
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