Women’s teams on the hunt for the last berths
With the top 17 teams in each gender in the Olympic Rankings set to qualify for Paris 2024 at the June 9 deadline, competition for the bottom spots inside the qualification zone will heat up even more in the tournaments scheduled for the next few weeks.
On the women’s side, teams under 7,000 points seem to still be at risk of not qualifying. Three of them that occupy the last spots inside the qualification zone will start the Espinho Elite16 in the qualifier and will have a major opportunity to improve their totals and get closer to Paris – France’s Alexia Richard/Lézana Placette (6,920), Lithuania’s Monika Paulikiene/Aine Raupelyte (6,900) and Canada’s Sarah Pavan/Molly McBain (6,540).
Espinho Elite16 – Women’s Entry List
Some teams slightly below the cut-off line will also play in Portugal and will be aiming for strong results to improve their positions ahead of the final events of the qualification period. Among them are Spain’s Liliana Fernández/Paula Soria (6,480), Finland’s Taru Lahti-Liukkonen/Niina Ahtiainen (6,420), Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphornrapat/Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee (6,260) and Austria’s Ronja Klinger/Dorina Klinger (6,220).
The Espinho Elite16 will also play a critical role in the internal battle between teams from the same country. That’s the case with Switzerland and Germany, where Nina Brunner/Tanja Hüberli (9,220) and Svenja Müller/Cinja Tillmann (8,260) respectively are in a strong position to claim their Olympic spots, leaving just one berth available for two other duos from their country.