Just a week after changes at the top of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings for both women and men, the leaders changed again. With Monday’s update following the Joao Pessoa Elite16 on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, Brazil’s Carol Solberg & Barbara Seixas returned to the number one spot in the women’s chart for the first time in almost two years, while reigning Olympic champions David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig reclaimed the men’s top after giving it up for only a week.
Beach Pro Tour
Carol & Barbara return to World Ranking top after two years
Ahman & Hellvig regain the men’s number one spot after just a week’s absence
Published 07:47, 22 Oct 2024
Carol Solberg & Barbara Seixas in Joao Pessoa
Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova enjoyed being the number one women’s team in the world for only one week. The Latvian duo did not take part in last week’s tournament in Joao Pessoa and that cost them the top spot. Despite their early exit after the Joao Pessoa eighthfinals, Carol & Barbara took advantage of the situation and returned to the leading position for the first time since another Brazilian pair, Ana Patricia Ramos & Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda), took it away from them on November 7, 2022. Carol & Barbara netted 140 of the 600 ranking points that came with their ninth place, enough to surpass both Germany’s Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann and Tina & Anastasija to the top of the chart on a new total of 6,820 points, 40 points clear of the Latvians.
Joao Pessoa winners Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes of Brazil added 1,200 points to their World Ranking score, which propelled them 47 positions up the chart to number 40 on a 2,800 total from three tournaments played. Their compatriots, silver medallists Taiana Lima & Talita Antunes, jumped 33 positions up to number 37 after six Beach Pro Tour appearances.
Kimberly Hildreth & Teegan Van Gunst pocketed 540 points of the 1,000 that came with their bronze and gained three positions in the ranking to number 26. Fellow Americans Deahna Kraft & Lexy Denaburg, whom they beat in the third place match, made a giant leap of 76 positions to number 75 after finishing fourth at their Elite16 debut, their fourth Beach Pro Tour event.
Similarly, Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands enjoyed their return to the number one spot in the men’s World Ranking for a week, but after skipping Joao Pessoa they had to give it up. Previous leaders Ahman & Hellvig took it back following a bronze medal finish in Brazil last week. The Swedes netted the entire amount of 1,000 points earned and jumped well ahead of the Dutch again on an 8,100-point total from seven qualifying tournaments, 960 points clear at the top.
Joao Pessoa gold medallists, Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions and former world’s number ones Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway, also pocketed the full 1,200 points collected in Brazil. That improved their current score to 6,500 points, accumulated in only six qualifying tournaments, and lifted them seven spots up the chart to number six.
Qatar’s Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan, also a former world’s number one team, ascended from number 17 to number 11, after pocketing 908 of the 1,100 points they earned with their Joao Pessoa silver.
Argentina’s Nicolas Capogrosso & Tomas Capogrosso, who made it to the top four of an Elite16 tournament for the first time on their journey as a team, also made it to their highest ever placement in the World Ranking. They jumped nine positions up to number 16, or four positions better than their previous high in number 20 from June last year.
