A whole lot of points were distributed at the end of the Beach Volleyball World Championships Rome 2022, but with most successful participants already doing pretty well in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking, movement was far from apocalyptic. Still, both new champions of the world moved swiftly up the ladder. Former number ones Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway are now back up among the top three for the first time in about two months, while Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) and Ana Patricia Ramos of Brazil, who had never been among the top 15 as a team, are now up to number five.
Beach Pro Tour 2022
World champs Mol & Sorum back to top three in World Ranking
Duda & Ana Patricia jump to number five in the ladies’ chart
Published 09:58, 21 Jun 2022
Mol & Sorum celebrate their World Championship victory
In addition to the trophy, the gold medals, a sweet amount of prize money and, most of all, sporting glory, the first place at the World Championships also earned the winners 1,600 points towards the World Rankings. Mol and Sorum’s new total of 5,340 lifted them from a shared ninth to the third place in the chart, while Duda and Ana Patricia made a leap from 16th to fifth on a total of 4,760 points.
Duda & Ana Patricia lift the World Championship trophy
Men’s silver medallists Renato Andrew and Vitor Felipe added 1,440 points to their account to improve to a 5,108 total and make the leap from 11th to fourth in the ranking. Their Brazilian compatriots Andre Stein and George Wanderley took 1,280 points for their Rome 2022 bronze, enough to retain the world’s number one position on a total of 6,200. They also widened the gap with second-ranked Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan from 200 points last week to 640 this week.
The Qataris, on the other hand, failed to make it past the Round of 16 in the Italian capital, and earned 800 points. It was enough to stay second, but now only 180 points clear of their closest rivals - the Norwegian world champs. With Mol and Sorum showing they are in great shape by winning in Rome and Ostrava, Cherif and Ahmed will have to watch out as the race for points continues at the Gstaad Elite16 in about two weeks.
Interestingly, with the rise of Renato/Vitor Felipe and the Norwegian Vikings, even some of the teams that placed high in the World Championship standings lost ground in the World Ranking. For example, Rome 2022 semifinalists Chaim Schalk and Theodore Brunner of USA gained 1,120 points, but dropped two positions down to seventh, partly because some of their points from previous events expired. Similarly, quarterfinalists Kusti Nolvak and Mart Tiisaar of Estonia dropped from sixth to eighth, while Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands fell from fourth to fifth.
After winning the Beach Pro Tour Jurmala Elite16 event, a few days before the World Championships, Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava went up to number three in the World Ranking. However, with the disappointing ninth place at their home World Championships, they quickly lost three positions to find themselves ranked sixth. Austria’s Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller, who did not make it past the Round of 16 either, dropped out of the top 10, from ninth to 11th, while one of the best teams so far this season, Poland’s Michal Bryl and Bartosz Losiak, who were seeded second in the World Championship bracket, but finished 37th, dropped from eighth to 15th.
Unlike their male counterparts, none of the top eight teams in the Rome 2022 women’s standings lost ground in the World Ranking.
In fact, most moved up, with bronze medallists Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann the only team to maintain the status quo. The Germans were third before the World Championships and they are still third after the World Championships, only much closer to the top two than before. They are 720 points behind Dutch leaders Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon and trail second-ranked Barbara Seixas and Carol Solberg of Brazil by just 340 points. Both of these pairs ended their Rome 2022 participation at the Round of 16.
World Championship silver medallists Sophie Bukovec and Brandie Wilkerson of Canada jumped from position 40 up to number 22 in the World Ranking on a new total of 3,040 points. Fourth-placed Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre rose to number four in the World Ranking, their highest rank so far this year, three spots up from their previous position.
Among the quarterfinalists, Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi made the highest jump up the chart, skyrocketing from 60th to 39th. USA’s Kelley Kolinske and Sara Hughes gained four spots to join the top 10 in position eight, while Australia’s Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and previous world champs Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes of Canada each improved by two places to 11th and 12th, respectively.
At the same time, three Brazilian duos lost their spots in the top 10. Elize Maia and Thamela Coradello, previously fourth, and Andressa Cavalcanti and Vitoria Rodrigues, previously fifth, did not play in Rome and fell to number 14 and number 15, respectively, just below 13th-ranked compatriots Taiana Lima and Hegeile Almeida, who were knocked out early in the World Championships, in the Round of 32. They will, however, have the opportunity to make up for the lost ground as soon as next month as the Beach Pro Tour visits Gstaad for an Elite16 event and Espinho and Marrakesh for Challenge tournaments.
