Ostrava Lessons Learnt: Breakthroughs abound in the Czech Republic

It would have been fair to wonder – and many likely have – what has happened to Alex Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen.

In 2018, they were, prior to the startling emergence of Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, one of the most dominant teams in the world. They finished every single event in the top 10, and in one brilliant stretch, they won three of four, in Doha, Aalsmeer, and Huntington Beach.

Within a year, they were relegated to the qualifier again.

They didn’t stay there, mind you, but to see Brouwer and Meeuwsen anywhere but on or near the podium just felt strange, foreign. Which is why the beginning of this 2021 season has felt so odd. Everyone knows what the Dutch are capable of. They, alongside fellow countrymen Steven van de Velde and Christiaan Varenhorst, are one of the most physical teams in the world. Stopping them is no easy task.

Yet the results were lagging, with three 17th-place finishes and two ninths to open up 2021.

Then came Ostrava.

Brouwer and Meeuwsen blitzed their way through pool and elimination to claim gold in Ostrava, the final qualifying event of this Olympic quad. They did so with marathon victories over bronze medallists Andre Loyola and George Wanderley (22-20, 24-26, 16-14) and hometown heroes Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner (13-21, 21-19, 15-13) in the gold medal match.

That’s the frightening thing about a team like Brouwer and Meeuwsen: a pair as talented as them is perpetually on the cusp of breakthrough, finding their thumping groove once more. They can regain their 2018 form in the blink of an eye, which is exactly what happened in the Czech Republic.

So if you were wondering what has happened to the Dutch pair this season, maybe Ostrava provided you an answer: nothing at all.

They’re every bit the dominant force they always have been.

Welcome back to the podium, Andre and George

Just as Ostrava was a re-breakthrough of sorts for Alex Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, the Czech Republic also served the same purpose for Brazilians Andre Loyola and George Wanderley. It had been 10 tournaments since Andre and George medalled, dating back to Espinho of 2019.

Similar to Brouwer and Meeuwsen, there was little indication there was an impending breakthrough for the Brazilians. In Sochi, Andre and George failed to break pool, losing consecutive matches to Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi and Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb, marking the first time in their partnership they didn’t advance from pool.

Such is the nature of breakthroughs: oftentimes they happen when you least expect them.

In Ostrava, after getting swept by Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl in the first round of pool, Andre and George looked positively dominant. They strung together wins against Gibb and Crabb, Trevor Crabb and Tri Bourne, and Ilya Leshukov and Konstantin Semenov. In the semifinals, they battled Brouwer and Meeuwsen in a tremendous match before regrouping to win bronze over Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy, 27-25, 21-18.

The cause of this breakthrough? Tough to say. George’s serve was fantastic all weekend, which seemed to translate to his offence and transition play. Andre was magnificent at the net.

Similar to Brouwer and Meeuwsen, everyone knows Andre and George are every bit as capable to podium on any given weekend.

Similar to Brouwer and Meeuwsen, sometimes those breakthroughs happen when they might appear to be the least expected.  

Chile's Esteban Grimalt, Marco Grimalt survive Olympic race

They survived.

At the beginning of this Olympic qualifying period, it didn’t appear Chilean cousins Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt would need to just barely survive to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. They came out of the gates piping hot, with back-to-back gold medals in Sydney and Doha, emerging from the qualifier in the latter to win gold. They cooled a touch from there, sure, but still: they were consistently finishing in the top 10, adding three such finishes in the truncated 2020 season.

But 2021 has been objectively brutal for the Chileans. As the Olympic qualifying period neared its close, the Grimalts were surpassed by Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi, Cherif Samba and Ahmed Tijan, Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor, and Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner. With only Ostrava remaining, they held a 20-point lead over Latvians Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins for the final Olympic berth to be gained via the Olympic rankings.

They held on.

Barely.

They had a chance to bury Samoilovs and Smedins in the first round of elimination and guarantee their Olympic berth, but they fell, 17-21, 15-21, leaving it up to fate, and a matchup between Samoilovs and Smedins and Italians Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo. A win from Latvia could have given Samoilovs and Smedins the boost they needed to jump the Grimalts. A loss from Latvia would put Chile in their second straight Olympics.

It was simple as that.

And it was with no small amount of stress that the Grimalts survived and advanced into the Olympic Games. Nicolai and Lupo won a thriller, 21-19, 30-28 to seal up the Olympic berth for Chile.

It may not have been pretty. It may have been stressful.

But Marco and Esteban Grimalt are going to Tokyo.

Aleksandrs Samoilovs, Janis Smedins must win Continental Cup to qualify for Tokyo

To imagine an Olympic Games without Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins is just plain weird. Samoilovs has competed in Beijing, London, and Rio, and engineered one of the biggest upsets in Olympic beach volleyball history when he and Martins Plavins stunned Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers in the opening round of pool in 2008. Smedins is a two-time Olympian, a bronze medallist in 2012 who authored a gargantuan upset of his own when he and Plavins felled Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal in the quarterfinals.

Now they have an uphill battle just to qualify.

Their loss to Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo in the ninth-place round in Ostrava eliminated the possibility of Samoilovs and Smedins qualifying for Tokyo via Olympic qualifying points. The only route left to qualify, then, is the CEV Continental Cup, the finals of which will be held on June 23-26 in The Hague, Netherlands.

There, Latvia must beat out the top two pairs – pairs who are not already qualified for the Olympic Games – from Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
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