Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz started the 2024 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour season with a big mountain to climb in order to qualify for the Paris 2024 Games via the FIVB Olympic Rankings, but the two Challenge events held in Brazil in March made their task a lot more attainable.
With silver medals won at both the Recife Challenge and last weekend’s tournament in Saquarema, the Caribbean collected 1,520 points and, although they’re still outside the qualification zone, their odds of being among the top 17 teams in the ranking by the June 9 deadline have significantly improved.
With nine wins and four losses over two weeks of play in Brazil, the 22-year-old Alayo and the 21-year-old Diaz found their way to back-to-back gold medal matches and ended the two weeks of play with 4,900 points, having started it with 3,380.
One factor that places the Cubans much closer to the qualification zone, which now has the last team qualifying with 6,080 points, is the fact that they have only eight of the 12 required results accounted for, meaning they’re still going to add the entirety of the points they earn in the next four events to their total, while most of their rivals will need to drop lower finishes and replace them with higher ones, adding just a share of the points they earn.
