The winners of the first event bringing points towards Paris 2024 Olympic qualification, Doha Elite16 gold medallists Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon reclaimed the number two spot in the women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking after their success in Qatar last week.
Beach Pro Tour
Stam & Schoon climb back up to World Ranking number two
Ahman & Hellvig gain two positions to number eight, their highest ranking so far
Published 10:44, 07 Feb 2023
Raisa Schoon & Katja Stam at the Doha Elite16
With the first place in Doha, the Dutch pair added 1,200 new points to their record, but also dropped their 760 points from last June’s Elite16 in Jurmala, netting 440 points towards a new total of 7,440, enough to move up a spot overtaking Brazil’s Barbara Seixas and Carol Solberg, who failed to progress past the pool stage in Qatar and finished ninth, 180 points below Stam and Schoon in the updated World Ranking.
The last time the team from the Netherlands were second in the chart was four months ago, just before another Brazilian duo, Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) and Ana Patricia Ramos climbed from number three to the top, where they still are, even after failing to reach last week’s semifinals in Qatar. For their fifth place in Doha, the world’s top-ranked pair took in 760 points, which did not result in a net change to their total of 8,560.
None of the other teams from the women’s best four in Doha moved in the ranking. Silver medallists Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli of Switzerland stayed sixth on a new total of 6,770 points, just below Latvia’s Anastasija Samoilova and Tina Graudina, who finished fourth last week and are fifth in the ranking on 6,960 points, and bronze medallists Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho Del Solar of Australia, fourth on 7,040.
Among the remaining four quarterfinalists in Doha, USA’s Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss rose from number eight to their new high number seventh, their compatriots Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng, who failed to win a tournament for the first time since their reunion, ascended from 67 to 51, while the newly-formed Canadian pairing of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson entered the World Ranking straight into position 159.
David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig’s second place in Doha caused the only upward movement within the top 10 of the men’s World Ranking. The Swedish jump-setters took in 1,100 new points with their silver, while dropping 340 points from their Rosarito Elite16 participation last year. Their new total of 6,320 points propelled them two spots up, from number 10 to number eight, switching places with Brazil’s Renato Lima and Vitor Felipe, who finished ninth last week. It is the first time Ahman and Hellvig reach that high up in the ranking.
Doha bronze medallists Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri of Italy, who reunited late into the 2022 season, made another solid leap up the chart, from 86th to 54th.
The other two semifinalists, as well as two of the quarterfinalists, did not move in the ranking. Winners Anders Mol and Christian Sorum improved to 9,120 points, widening their lead at the top of the ranking to 1,740 points. Dutch pair Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, who were sharing the second place with Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan, finished fifth in Doha, leaving the Qataris behind as number three in the ranking.
Fourth-placed Michal Bryl and Bartosz Losiak of Poland stayed fifth in the World Ranking, while fifth-placed Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt of Chile stayed in number nine.
Among the other quarterfinalists, Germany’s Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers jumped from number 23 to number 13, and Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira rose from number 16 to number 14.
