“F–ing fourth.” Trevor Crabb, Theo Brunner end brilliant run with another fourth
TLAXCALA, MEXICO — Theo Brunner had to know. The masochist.
“Three fourths,” he said, shaking his head after a second straight loss at the 2023 Beach Volleyball World Championships. “Has anyone ever done that?”
No. That honor is Brunner’s alone.
Not only has nobody ever finished fourth at the World Championships thrice — nobody, prior to this weekend, had ever even done it twice, although Trevor Crabb can now lay claim to that strange, incredible yet painful title, after finishing fourth in Hamburg in 2019 as well.
“Dude,” Crabb said. “F—ing fourth.”
Sunday was a brutal finish to an otherwise brilliant tournament for Crabb and Brunner, a second straight loss, this one at the hands of Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl (17-21, 18-21). Brunner, in the immediate moments after, the sting still fresh, found the proper perspective.
A week ago, they almost took 37th.
Fourth seems quite nice when compared to that.
“We were lucky to get out of pool alive,” he said, referencing one of the wildest nights of the tournament, when Chase Budinger and Miles Evans beat Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik by such a margin (16) that Brunner and Crabb’s match against Brazil’s Andre and George suddenly became an elimination match. They had no idea, and fill-in coach Paul Lotman made sure that nobody told them as much. There was no reason to add untold amounts of pressure to an already pressure-filled tournament.
They survived against Andre and George, the 2022 World Championship bronze medalists and, by extension, survived the tournament. Lotman made an excellent call in not allowing Brunner and Crabb to know they were in a do-or-die. That night, when the playoff brackets were released, he made the gravest of coaching faux pas: “Nice draw.” (he’s a rookie coach; forgive him).
“We told him to shut up,” Brunner recalled, laughing, understanding the laws of the beach volleyball universe, knowing you can never make such a statement out loud, for the second you proclaim a draw to be friendly or nice or easy, that draw suddenly becomes the one that sends you packing early. But Lotman was right. Relative to the rest of the bracket, it was the easiest road available, one that included a pair of talented but not-quite-elite Australian teams and an aging Pedro Salgado.
They took advantage with three straight sweeps and two shots at a medal.
“In retrospect, it was a good draw, but it’s different coming out and playing a team as dialed as the Czech guys were,” Brunner said, referencing a 21-15, 21-12 semifinal loss to Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner. “Our main goal [Sunday] was whatever happens, this is one of the best teams in the world, let’s not get flustered, let’s play our game, and I was really proud of how we played. That’s the type of game we can build on and I think we have a chance of being top eight. That’s our goal, to keep getting better, and from that standpoint this was a great tournament.”
Indeed, Brunner and Crabb hauled in a season-high 1,120 Olympic and entry points, 300 more than their previous high. They jumped to No. 15 in the Olympic rankings, surging five spots ahead and leaping Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk for the first time. They’re cashing a $28,000 check and likely moving into the main draws of Elite16s.
It was, fourth be damned, a brilliant 10 days in Mexico.
“The third one doesn’t hurt as bad as my second one,” Brunner joked of his run of fourths. “I’d already suffered the defeat of my second fourth.”
Trevor Crabb passes as the Americans played Poland/Volleyball World photo
Historical World Championships podium in Mexico
Suffering, in a World Championship sense, had been experienced by every team who made the podium on Sunday night.
The eventual gold medalists, Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner? They were dismissed in the first round in 2022.
How about the silver medalists? Those indefatigable jumping Swedes, David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig? Had to withdraw from the 2022 World Championships due to injury.
The Poles in bronze? Didn’t even break pool a year ago.
“Yesterday was one of the hardest nights of my life,” Losiak said, referring to a devastating loss to Ahman and Hellvig in the semifinals, in which he and Bryl had a swing for the match. “To clear our mind after being so close, I don’t even know how to say it, it’s amazing.”
It is the first World Championship medal won by all three federations. None, in fact, had ever even made a semifinal, let alone won a medal or, for Perusic and Schweiner, the title of World Champion.
“Amazing. This feels like the longest three weeks we’ve ever had,” said Schweiner, who had also won gold in the preceding tournament, the Paris Elite16. “It was really, really difficult, but I am super happy and proud of our whole team and our families. This is a team result.”
David Schweiner, left, and Ondrej Perusic after winning the World title/Volleyball World photo
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