Tokyo Tracker: Dalhausser and Lucena, Gibb and Crabb look to hold onto Olympic berths

There is one race left to highlight. One for which beach volleyball fans can take note as we hurtle towards the final events of this Olympic race.

We have taken inventory of the last two berths to the Tokyo Olympics to be earned via Olympic rankings, a seesawing, thrilling affair between Chilean cousins Marco and Esteban Grimalt, skyballing and shoot setting Italians Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi, Latvian consummate professionals Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins, Poland’s veteran duo of Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak, and recent upstarts in Mirco Gerson and Adrian Heidrich, Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter, and Lars Fluggen and Nils Ehlers.

We have taken a look at the women’s side, which has become a miniature civil war, between Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat, Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes, and Kelley Kolinske and Emily Stockman.

But there remains another battle to view, a final race of which to take stock: Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb’s attempt to reclaim the second American berth to Tokyo.

For the better part of two years during this Olympic qualification process, they held onto either the No. 1 or No. 2 spot in the United States. An excellent start, with a gold medal and a fourth in their first two events, put them high up the leaderboard.

But high is never high enough when the men chasing you are named Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena.

When the team on your heels includes arguably the greatest blocker the United States has ever seen, and the defender with whom he plays the best.

In Doha in March, Dalhausser and Lucena passed Bourne and Crabb for the first time of the race. In Cancun, they expanded their lead, even tying Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb at 7,040 points apiece.

It leaves Bourne and Crabb in third – not a distant third, but third nonetheless – at 6,600 points. With just two events remaining in the Olympic qualification period, it makes the race somewhat cut and dry from here on out: Bourne and Crabb need to medal.

In Sochi next week, if Bourne and Crabb finish no better than ninth, the race is over: Dalhausser and Gibb will be in their fourth Olympics each, Lucena his second, Taylor Crabb his first. If Bourne and Crabb finish fifth or better, and neither Dalhausser and Lucena nor Gibb and Crabb add to their points, the race is still on, finishing in Ostrava.

The most points Bourne and Crabb can add in a single tournament is 400. This means that even if they are to win gold in Sochi, they would still trail both Gibb and Crabb and Dalhausser and Lucena, but the race would be awfully tight in Ostrava.

But that’s what it comes down to: only fifth or better for Bourne and Crabb will do to keep the American race going.

All American eyes, then, will be on Sochi next week.

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