The weekend strengthened the Olympic hopes of beach volleyball teams from 19 European nations as the region held phase 2 of its Continental Cup competition, a qualification event for the Tokyo Games that puts one berth in each gender in play.
After men’s and women’s tournaments held in Izmir (Turkey), Madrid (Spain), and Baden (Austria), 15 countries in each gender moved on to the final round. These nations will join hosts the Netherlands in the final phase, which will be played in The Hague from June 23-26 and will qualify the men’s and women’s winners for Tokyo.
Represented by Vasiliki Arvaniti/Penny Karagkouni and Dimitra Manavi/Maria Klepkou, Greece won Pool A in Izmir after a victory against Poland in the final. Both countries advanced to the final phase, as did third-placed Finland, fourth-placed Czech Republic and fifth-placed Slovenia.
“We accomplished our goal here and that makes all of us really happy,” the 36-year-old Arvaniti, a three-time Olympian, said. “It feels even better that we managed to win the tournament and to defeat teams that are ranked higher than us. We played really well during all three days, we lost just one set and that makes us believe that qualifying for Tokyo is a real possibility.”
The Greek team that won Pool A in Turkey celebrate with their coaching staffThe men’s tournament in Turkey was won by the host country, which selected the teams of Murat Giginoglu/Volkan Gogtepe and Selcuk Sekerci/Sefa Urlu to compete. Latvia, Slovenia, Italy and Lithuania also advanced as they finished in the top 5.
Madrid hosted Pool B and Nadezda Makroguzova/Svetlana Kholomina and Ksenia Dabizha/Daria Rudykh took Russia to the top with a victory against France in the final matches. Ranked third, fourth and fifth, Spain, Switzerland and Lithuania will also be part of the final phase in The Hague.
Among the men, the winners were Germany, which fielded the teams of Julius Thole/Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers/Lars Fluggen and defeated hosts Spain in the final. Ukraine, Czech Republic and Belarus secure the other three spots.
Germany also ended the week on top among the women as the duos of Laura Ludwig/Svenja Muller and Leonie Kortzinger/Sarah Schneider finished on top of Pool C, in Baden, after they defeated hosts Austria. Third, fourth and fifth respectively, Italy, Ukraine and Norway will also appear in the final phase.
Switzerland counted on great performances from Adrian Heidrich/Mirco Gerson and Marco Krattiger/Florian Breer to prevail among the men in Baden. Besides the Swiss, Poland, Austria, Belgium and France have also booked their tickets to The Hague.
Quick links:
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube