Francisca Rivas and Chris Vorpahl win their first crown

The beach volleyball players won the South American Circuit by beating Brazil in the semifinals and Argentina in the final.

After winning gold in the final of the 2020 South American Beach Volleyball Circuit, which was played in Peñalolén Park against the Argentine Fernanda Pereyra and Ana Gallay, everything was joy and novelty for the Chilean players María Francisca Rivas and Chris Vorpahl. The trans-Andean women are the vice-champions of the Lima 2019 Pan-American Championship, where in the quarterfinals they had eliminated Rivas (at that time in Lima she played with Pilar Mardones, who was recovering from an injury).

22-24, 24-22 and 15-13 in the definition and an unprecedented gold medal in the demanding circuit, considering the category of the rivals. In addition to the successful Argentine team, the champions in the first event in 2020 were also participating, Andressa and Vitória, from Brazil. The event was attended by nine countries, each represented by a couple in each branch. Teams from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela and Uruguay were present.

Due to the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 season had only two stages before the final event dispute. In February of last year, Coquimbo, on the north coast of Chile, received the first stop. Brazil won three medals: one gold, one silver, and one bronze. Lima, the Peruvian capital, hosted the second stage, in March last year, when the Brazilians won four medals: two gold, one silver and one bronze.

But this time it was the Chileans, in Chile, who imposed their conditions. Because in addition to the gold of the female duo, the cousins Marco and Esteban Grimalt took the silver, when they fell in the final against Argentina, in one more step towards the Tokyo 2020 classification.

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