The second FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-star tournament at the Cancun Hub started on Wednesday for seven teams from the United States and four from Brazil which participated in the country quota playoffs.
At the end of the day, three American duos and two Brazilian tandems guaranteed their place in the tournament as they advanced to compete in Thursday’s qualifier at Playa Delfines.
The American men’s country quota qualified two teams including Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb, who started the first tournament in the main draw and finished ninth.
The 31-year-old Hawaiians are in a tight race with two other teams from their country to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics and advanced to the qualifier with a 2-0 (21-13, 21-13) victory against Andy Benesh and Billy Allen.
“It went pretty quick,” Bourne reacted. “That was our goal, we wanted to get off the sand as quick as possible so we don’t wear ourselves out too much. Coming here the goal is to get three good finishes and improve our Olympic hopes and that starts with getting into the main draw.”
The other match in the American country quota was won by Miles Evans and Billy Kolinske, who upset Theo Brunner and Chaim Schalk with a 2-0 (35-33, 21-18) win. The two teams had met in last week’s qualifier and Brunner and Schalk were the winners on that occasion.
Sponcil and Claes advanced from the country quota for the second event in a rowKelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil were actually the only team who have managed to qualify in back-to-back events in Mexico so far. The Americans, who also have Olympics hopes, defeated Sara Hughes and Emily Day for the second time in seven days with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) victory to claim the only berth in play in the American women’s country quota.
The Brazilian women’s country quota, however, had different winners when compared to last week, as World Tour veterans Carol Solberg and Barbara Seixas got payback against Victoria Lopes and Taina Bigi, securing a 2-0 (21-12, 24-22) victory to advance.
“Advancing is wonderful,” Barbara, a Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist, commented. “Victoria and Taina are great together and they’ve been playing for some time now. They’re very smart in using the windy conditions here. Last week we struggled a little bit with it but today we handled it better. We prepared during the week to play better this time and I’m glad we did.”
Pedro hits during the Brazilian country quota matchCarol’s brother Pedro, also a Rio 2016 Olympian, managed to change his fortunes from last week’s country quota as well, as he and partner Arthur Lanci avenged last Thursday’s setback to Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes and Arthur Mariano and secured a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) triumph to move on in the tournament.
Thursday’s qualification matches and the entire main draw will be streamed live on the Beach Volleyball World Youtube channel. Subscribe, log in and set reminders to receive notifications when streams begin.
Go to:
Cancun Hub - 2nd event
Cancun Hub - 2nd event - Match schedule
Provisional Olympic ranking - Men
Provisional Olympic ranking - Women
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