One of the sensations of last week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge tournament held in Espinho, Portugal, Piotr Kantor and Jakub Zdybek will try to start another remarkable run on Thursday, when they will be back on the court at the Edmonton Challenge.

The Poles are one of the 32 men’s teams that will be battling for one of the final eight spots in the main draw in the men's qualifier on the opening day of the Canadian event – the women’s qualifier will also feature 32 duos at the Fan Park.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Edmonton Challenge live on VBTV

The 31-year-old Kantor, a Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympian, and the 27-year-old Zdybek became partners just a few weeks ago and have been having immediate success together. After advancing from the qualifiers at both the Challenge events held in Jurmala, Latvia, and Espinho, they will need to do it again this week in Canada.

Kantor and Zdybek, who endured a 32-hour trip from Espinho to Edmonton, were fifth in Jurmala, in their first international tournament as partners, and improved one step at the Praia da Baía. The Poles have a 10-4 win record in the two events.

The Europeans, however, won’t be the only ones trying to advance from the qualifiers on the Beach Pro Tour in back-to-back weeks as five other teams that also succeed in Espinho will try to do it again this week in Edmonton – Argentina’s Nicolas Capogrosso/Tomas Capogrosso, Lithuania’s Patrikas Stankevicius/Audrius Knasas, Australia’s Chris McHugh/Paul Burnett, Thailand’s Pithak Tipjan/Poravid Taovato and USA’s Taylor Sander/Taylor Crabb.

The Edmonton qualifier will also feature the Canadian top team of Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing and the duo formed by the host country’s volleyball Olympians Sharone Vernon-Evans and Steven Marshall, who made their debut on the sand in a Futures tournament in Lille, France, last month and will now be tested at the Challenge level for the first time.

**Beach Pro Tour Edmonton Challenge – Match Schedule**

The women’s qualifier in Edmonton will also have six teams that thrived in the Espinho qualifier one week ago. Among them are the home duo of world champion Sarah Pavan and partner Molly McBain, who made it to the main draw in their third attempt in Portugal and ended the event in ninth place.

The other five teams that will be trying to advance in consecutive weeks are Canada’s Megan McNamara/Nicole McNamara, Finland’s Niina Athiainen/Taru Lahti, Spain’s Liliana Fernández/Paula Soria, USA’s Megan Kraft/Emily Stockman and Austria’s Dorina Klinger/Ronja Klinger.

Two other attractions of the women’s qualifier in Edmonton will be the presence of German Olympic champion Laura Ludwig, playing with former German volleyball national team star Louisa Lippmann, and the return to the court of Canadian Olympian Heather Bansley, who had retired after the Tokyo Olympics, in 2021, and made a comeback to play with Sophie Bukovec.

The qualifier will kick off the Edmonton Challenge, which will continue until Sunday, when the medal winners will be determined. Pool play will be held on Friday, followed by the elimination rounds on Saturday.

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