RIO DE JANEIRO – Canada’s Josh Binstock and Samuel Schachter started their Rio Olympic beach volleyball tournament with a 2-0 loss to Brazil’s Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt in preliminary play on Saturday.
Set scores were 21-19, 22-20.
Binstock and Schachter, both of Richmond Hill, Ont., kept up with the world champion and gold-medal favourite Brazilians throughout the match. They outblocked Cerutti and Schmidt 5-1.
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Canada battled in the second set, tying it at 17-17, 18-18, and 19-19. The Canadians took the lead 20-19 before Brazil tied it again.
Binstock appeared to put Canada up 21-20 but a replay showed he hit the net with on his follow through, giving Brazil the point. The Brazilians then promptly took the match on an error to Schachter.
Down 20-17 in the first set, Canada scored two consecutive points to climb within one before the Brazilians earned the set point.
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Binstock Schachter play Italy on Monday in their second Pool A match.
The pair earned Canada’s final Olympic berth just three weeks ago with a three-set victory over fellow Canadians Sam Pedlow and Grant O’Gorman in North Bay, Ont.
Canada sent four beach volleyball teams to Rio including two women’s teams and one other men’s team.