With its third consecutive victory, the Cuban pair of Nivaldo Diaz and Sergio Gonzalez advanced to the second round of the beach volleyball event of Rio 2016 Olympic Games, which hosts this Brazilian city.

At the Copacabana arena, the Cuban duo beat 2-0 (21-15 and 21-18) the Canadian couple of Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton, who appear 9th in the ranking of the world.

With that win, the representatives of the Caribbean island officially secured the ticket to the round of 16 in another great performance against rivals ranked among the global top 10.

With this result, the Cubans, monarchs in the Veracruz 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games, led unbeaten Group D with a 3-0 balance, so they have become a sensation of beach volleyball in Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

In its debut, the Cuban pair, who finished ninth place in the World Championship of Netherlands 2015, defeated 2-1 (24-22, 21-23 and 15-13) Brazilians Pedro Solberg and Evandro Oliveira, bronze medalists at that same competition and 4th seat in the world rankings.

And in its second presentation they beat also 2-1 (23-21, 19-21 and 15-9) Latvians Alexandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedin, current European champions and 12 th in the universal list.