Gallay & Pereyra blessed for playing and training in Cancun

The Argentineans have been making the most of their time in Mexico

Published 08:41, 04 May 2021

Gallay and Pereyra are excited to be in Cancun

The three FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-star events in the Cancun Hub have offered a lot of teams from around the world the opportunity to return to international-level competition after several months of wait. Pippo.

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Matt Anderson at the 2019 VNL match in Hoffman Estates

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Argentineans Ana Gallay and Fernanda Pereyra are among those athletes who are benefiting the most from their time in Mexico. For them, the possibility to compete in three main draws in Cancun has proved extremely valuable as since November 2019 they had only appeared in tournaments of their national tour and the South American Circuit.

“For us, it’s been great to be able to come here and compete, that’s what we love to do as athletes,” Gallay, a two-time Olympian, said. “Until a week before the first event we weren’t sure we’d be able to come and I’m glad we were. Fernanda and I are both coming from shoulder surgeries and at this level it’s really difficult to play if you’re not at your absolute best and cannot hit the ball hard, but we’re slowly improving.”

The Argentineans have defeated a Mexican team

The 35-year-old Gallay and the 29-year-old Pereyra have struggled with their physical limitations and managed to win only one of their first six matches in Mexican sand, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t taken full advantage of every opportunity they had in Cancun.

The Argentineans tried to maximize their time between tournaments with training sessions against some of the other duos competing in the events in a way to mimic the high level of competition they would be facing in the events.

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“I’d say this was probably the best part of coming here,” Gallay added. “In the first two tournaments we lost our first two matches and didn’t last long in the events, but we took that time to practice against other teams. To play against opponents with different playing styles has been great for us, we really took advantage of that opportunity.”

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Gallay and Pereyra are currently trying to qualify Argentina for the Olympics for the third time in a row after the defender represented the country at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games with Virginia Zonta and Georgina Klug respectively.

The team’s only chance of making it is through June’s Continental Cup, where Argentina will play Colombia, Paraguay and Venezuela in San Juan from June 26-27. To get the better possible preparation, Gallay and Pereyra plan on playing in the next World Tour events in Russia and the Czech Republic.

“The goal is to go to both Sochi and Ostrava, but with everything that’s going on it’s really difficult to tell for sure,” Gallay reflected. “If all goes well, we’ll take both teams that will play at the Continental Cup to these events so we can prepare in the best possible way. Our goal is to qualify and have Argentina at the Olympics once again.”