Dutch and Swiss earn Olympic tickets

It came down to the golden match in both genders, but the Netherlands and Switzerland earned their tickets to the Tokyo Olympics beach volleyball tournament as the Dutch women and Swiss men prevailed at the European Continental Cup Finals in The Hague.

Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam were the main names of the Dutch qualification as they won both of their matches against Russia to secure the ticket. The host country started the duel trailing as two-time Olympian Marleen van Iersel and partner Pleun Ypma lost to reigning Youth Olympic champions Mariia Bocharova and Maria Voronina 2-0 (18-21, 15-21) in the opening match of the day.

Schoon and Stam kept the Dutch in the mix with their 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) victory over Ksenia Dabizha and Daria Rudykh and were then selected to play Bocharova and Voronina in the golden match. They fed from the home fans to put in another strong performance and claim a 2-1 (21-15, 15-21, 15-11) win that secured the Netherlands a second women’s berth in Tokyo – Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink had qualified via the Olympic rankings.

“I think that what we did on the court is to do our job well, especially in the last set when we came back,” Schoon reacted. “We are so young and we did it so well here in the tournament against the world's top teams.”

The men’s decider had a similar storyline as Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson carried Switzerland to Tokyo with a pair of victories against the Netherlands. They put their country in the lead with a 2-0 (21-15, 22-20) victory over Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot but saw the advantage evaporate after Christiaan Varenhorst and Ruben Penninga downed fellow Swiss pair Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer also in two sets (21-18, 21-13).

Heidrich and Gerson returned to the court for the golden match against Varenhorst and Peninga and confirmed the Swiss triumph with a 2-1 (21-16, 15-21, 15-12) win which takes their country back to the Olympics after missing the Rio 2016 Games.

“We were on fire,” Heidrich exclaimed. “The difference from the second to the third set was that we made fewer mistakes on serve. The atmosphere here was so nice, the Dutch always gave their best. After such a long break without public, it seemed almost the old normal.”

The countries’ national federations will now pick the teams to occupy the spots earned at the Continental Cup. The Dutch Federation has announced a match in The Hague on Sunday between Schoon/Stam and Van Iersel/Ypma to decide which team will go to Tokyo, while the Swiss will reveal their decision on July 1.