Haikou finalists reach new heights in World Ranking

Three of the four teams that reached the gold medal matches at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Haikou Challenge last week also reached their best placements in the FIVB Beach Volleyball Ranking so far as the charts received their latest update on Monday.

The winners of the all-American men’s final, Chase Budinger & Miles Evans, climbed five spots to reach number 26 for the first time during their journey as a team, which started at the beginning of the current season. This is, in fact, the first time they make the top 30 of the World Ranking. Budinger & Evans collected 800 points for their first place in China, but with their ninth best harvest of 340 points dropped from their account, the duo net-gained 460 points to a new total of 4,520.

Their opponents in the gold medal match, Trevor Crabb & Theodore Brunner, who also started their cooperation at the start of this season, have been faster in climbing up the ladder. They pocketed 360 of the 760 points that came with their Haikou silver and rose four spots from their previous best 20^th place to a new high 16^th place on a total of 5,400 points.

All of the other men’s teams that made it to the quarterfinals in Haikou also moved up in the ranking. Australian bronze medallists Thomas Hodges & Zachery Schubert shifted two spots up to return to the top 10, sharing position nine with Qatar’s Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan and Italy’s Paolo Nicolai & Samuele Cottafava on 6,020 points each.

Fourth-placed Chaim Schalk & Tri Bourne of the United States also climbed two spots up to number 24, their best ranking as a team so far.

Among the four fifth-placed duos, Italy’s Gianluca Dal Corso & Marco Viscovich achieved the highest jump of 15 positions to number 52, Canada’s Daniel Dearing & Samuel Schachter leapt five spots to number 28, Poland’s Piotr Kantor & Jakub Zdybek gained four positions to number 32, while England’s Joaquin Bello & Javier Bello shifted one spot up to number 36.

For women’s silver medallists Zhu Lingdi & Cao Shuting of China, the Haikou Challenge was only the second tournament as a team, so it was only natural that keeping all of the 760 points that came with their runner-up position would propel them in the rankings. Having collected their first 280 points with the fourth place at the Mallorca Futures, the Chinese duo now rocketed to number 119 on a total of 1,040.

For former world’s number one team Barbara Seixas & Carol Solberg of Brazil, the Haikou gold medal meant a net gain of 40 points and one ranking position to level with Netherlands’ Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon in a joint sixth place on 6,620 points each. The other Brazilian team on the women’s podium, third-placed Taina Bigi & Victoria Lopes, also shifted one position up to number 13.

Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte of Lithuania, who finished fourth last week, surged eight spots to their team’s best ranking ever, number 23.

All four of the fifth-placed teams in the final women’s standings in Haikou also gained ground in the World Ranking. Canada’s Heather Bansley & Sophie Bukovec shot up 32 positions from number 103 to number 71. Norway’s Sunniva Helland-Hansen & Emilie Olimstad and Austria’s Franziska Friedl & Katharina Schutzenhofer gained nine positions each to number 52 and number 57, respectively, while another Canadian pair, Sarah Pavan & Molly McBain ascended eight spots to number 35.

**FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking – Women**
**FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking – Men**

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