Norway’s Hendrik Mol/Mathias Berntsen and Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava won’t have much time to celebrate the medals they won at last week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event held in Edmonton, Canada.

After three days and a quick trip inside the North American country, the European duos are ready to get back on the court on Wednesday, the opening day of the next event of the season, the Montréal Elite16.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Montréal Elite16 matches live on VBTV

Norwegians, who took silver in Edmonton, and Italians, who collected bronze, are among the 16 duos from 11 countries that will be competing in the men’s qualifier, with four coveted spots in the main draw serving as a reward. Matches are expected to start at 9:00 local time (13:00 UTC) and 12 encounters in each gender are scheduled.

Mol, 29, and his cousin Berntsen, 27, have been in just one qualifier this season, earlier this month at the Gstaad Elite16, and failed to advance after losing to Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira, who will also be in contention in the Montréal qualifier. Besides the silver in Edmonton, they also collected a bronze medal at the Itapema Challenge, in Brazil, in the 2023 season.

Nicolai, 34, and Cottafava, 24, have a similar record, having played in a single qualifier in the 2023 season, at the Ostrava Elite16, where they also couldn’t make it. The bronze medal won in Edmonton was the first for the two in the current season.

Their opponents in the Edmonton Challenge bronze medal match, Brazilians Pedro Solberg and Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes, will also be in action in the Montréal qualifier, alongside compatriots Vitor Felipe and Renato Lima.

The other duos entered to compete for a spot in the men’s main draw at the Notre Dame Island are USA’s Tri Bourne/Chaim Schalk, Kyle Friend/Paul Lotman and Miles Evans/Chase Budinger, Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov/Eduard Reznik, Australia’s Chris McHugh/Paul Burnett and Mark Nicolaidis/Izac Carracher, Argentina’s Nicolas Capogrosso/Tomas Capogrosso, Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Enrico Rossi, France’s Arthur Canet/Teo Rotar, the Netherlands’ Christiaan Varenhorst/Leon Luini and Canada’s Jake McNeil/Bill Russell.

Beach Pro Tour Montréal Elite16 – Match Schedule

The women’s qualifier in Montréal will count on just one of the four semifinalists in Edmonton, fourth-placed Swiss Zoé Vergé-Dépré and Esmée Böbner. While champions Bárbara Seixas and Carol Salgado of Brazil are guaranteed in the main draw in the Elite16 event, second-placed Italians Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi and third-placed Czechs Barbora Hermannová and Marie-Sara Štochlová didn’t enter the tournament.

Zoé and Esmée, who took silver at the Jurmala Challenge in June, have been having mixed results in qualifiers this year, having advanced in two of their five attempts so far.

The Swiss are ranked seventh in the Montréal Elite16 qualifier, behind Germany’s Cinja Tillmann/Svenja Müller, Slovenia’s Tjasa Kotnik/Tajda Lovsin, Spain’s Daniela Álvarez/Tania Moreno, Brazil’s Tainá Bigi/Victoria Lopes and Andressa Cavalcanti/Vitoria Rodrigues and Japan’s Miki Ishii/Sayaka Mizoe.

Also competing for a spot in the women’s main draw in the Canadian city will be USA’s Betsi Flint/Julia Scoles, New Zealand’s Alice Zeimann/Olivia MacDonald, Argentina’s Ana Gallay/Fernanda Pereyra, China’s Jie Dong/Fan Wang, Italy’s Margherita Bianchin/Claudia Scampoli, Poland’s Jagoda Gruszczynska/Aleksandra Wachowicz, Brazil’s Talita Antunes/Thamela Coradello and Canada’s Megan McNamara/Nicole McNamara and Heather Bansley/Sophie Bukovec.

After the conclusion of Wednesday’s qualifier, the tournament continues with pool play on Thursday and Friday in Montréal. The elimination rounds will be played on Saturday and the medal matches for both genders on Sunday.

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