Lausanne, Switzerland, April 18, 2016 - A Beach Volleyball bronze medal finish by Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen at last week’s Xiamen Open increased the Mexican pairs hold on the No. 15 spot on the provisional men’s ranking list for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
With a 420-point lead over their nearest competitor on the provisional listing, Ontiveros and Virgen with 4,120 points occupy the final spot for eligible players from the FIVB World Tour with pairs from France (Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson, 3,790 points) and Canada (Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter, 3,740) chasing the Mexicans for a spot in August’s Summer Games on Copacabana.
Seeded ninth in Xiamen, Ontiveros and Virgen won five of seven matches on the China courts highlighted by a 37-minute bronze medal win over fourth-seeded Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Konstantin Semenov of Russia (2-0, 21-15, 24-22). With the finish, Ontiveros and Virgen erased a previous 240-point effort with 400 points for placing third in Xiamen.
DEFEATING A RIVAL
One of the Ontiveros and Virgen’s victories in the first of two Chinese stops on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour calendar was a 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) elimination bracket decision in 29 minutes over the 12th-seeded Krou and Rowlandson in the first international meeting between the two teams.
With seven events left in the qualifying period for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the teams chasing Ontiveros and Virgen for the last spot from FIVB World Tour ranking list will need to consistently post "final four" finishes in the upcoming "open" events in China (Fuzhou), Brazil (Fortaleza), Russia (Sochi), Turkey (Antalya) and the United States (Cincinnati).
To better their 12-best finishes, Ontiveros/Virgen must post quarter-final finishes in three of the "open" stops as the Mexicans have three counted "240-point" finishes. "Open" quarter-final finishes net a team 300 points. Fourth-place finishes earn 350 points for a team, 400 for the bronze medal, 450 for the silver and 500 for the gold.
ADDITIONAL POINTS
Despite losing ground to Ontiveros and Virgen, Krou and Rowlandson’s ninth-place Xiamen finish moved the Frenchmen ahead of Binstock and Schachter, who failed to advance to the elimination rounds from their pool to place 25th in the 23rd of 30 qualifying events for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Krou and Rowlandson entered the Xiamen Open with a 10-point deficit to the Canadians (3,740 to 3,730), but the 240 points for the French’s finish erased a previous 180-point placement from their provisional ranking list. Binstock and Schachter did post a win last week in pool play as the 10th-seeded Canadians defeated eventual Xiamen champions Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain 2-0 (22-20, 21-18).
SPANISH SUCCESS
After losing to the Canadians, the seventh-seeded Gavira and Herrera won their final four Xiamen matches to capture their second FIVB World Tour gold medal together. The Spaniards rallied to win both their “final four” matches in three sets highlighted by a 2-1 (14-21, 21-19, 15-12) gold medal win in 46 minutes over fifth-seeded Tri Bourne and John Hyden of the United States.
In the semi-finals, Gavira and Herrera out-lasted Krasilnikov and Semenov 2-1 (19-21, 21-16 and 15-10) in a 42-minute match. To reach the medal rounds, the Spaniards scored a 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 15-8) quarter-final victory in 47 minutes over top-seeded Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk of Canada.
The next Rio qualifying stop on the FIVB World Tour will be in Fuzhou, China, the third of eight-straight weeks of men’s events on the international circuit followed by tournaments in Brazil (Fortaleza), Russia (Sochi and Moscow), Turkey (Antalya) and the United States (Cincinnati). The last FIVB World Tour qualifying event for the Rio 2016 Summer Games will be June 7-12 in Hamburg, Germany.
FIVB WORLD TOUR OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION
To qualify for the Olympics, a team must compete together in at least 12 FIVB World Tour events and/or recognized Continental championships from January 2015 through June 13, 2016. A team’s best 12 finishes will be used to determine a tandem’s ranking. A maximum of two teams per country is allowed to compete in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Five pairs for each gender’s Olympic competition will qualify via Continental Cup action where each FIVB confederation is guaranteed a berth in the Rio 2016 Summer Games. The last qualifying event will be July 6-10 when Russia hosts the FIVB World Continental Cup Olympic Qualification Tournament in Sochi. The top two tandems from each gender from the Continental Cup qualifier will earn the last two pairs in the 24-team Olympic competitions.
BRAZILIAN BERTHS SECURED
Brazil has already qualified two teams in each gender’s competition for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Two pairs from the South American country captured the gold medals at the 2015 FIVB World Championships last July in The Hague (Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas) to secure Copacabana compartments. Being the host of the Rio Summer Games, Brazil was guaranteed two teams in the 24-team men’s and women’s fields (Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg and Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca).
With all that said, Brazilian pairs cannot qualify another team for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games through the FIVB World Tour. Therefore, the ranking list excludes Brazilians in the ranking order as Alison/Bruno (7,050 points) and Evandro Pedro (6,130) are the top two teams on the men’s provisional points list for Rio. Talita/Larissa (6,940) and Agatha/Barbara (6,870) rank 1-2 on the women’s provisional list.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
The last seven international stops are double gender tournaments highlighted by US$800,000 FIVB World Tour Grand Slam stops in Moscow and Hamburg.
• April 19-24 - Fuzhou (China) Open
• April 26-May 1 - Fortaleza (Brazil) Open
• May 3-8 - Sochi (Russia) Open
• May 10-15 - Antalya (Turkey) Open
• May 17-22 - Cincinnati (United States) Open
• May 24-29 - Moscow (Russia) Grand Slam
• June 7-12 - Hamburg (Germany) Grand Slam