Olympians succeed in Gstaad qualifier

Teams headed to Tokyo and past Olympians progress to the main draw in the Swiss Alps

Published 07:11, 06 Jul 2021

Less than two weeks after qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics with their victory at the European Continental Cup Finals, Dutch rising stars Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam advanced to the main draw of the last event before the Games, the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-star tournament in Gstaad.

The 19-year-old Schoon and the 22-year-old Stam had just one match in their calendar in their first-ever trip to the Swiss Alps and they handled it well, securing a 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) victory over Italians Margherita Bianchin and Claudia Scampoli in the qualification tournament to claim their main draw spot.

"These last few weeks have been unreal," Stam commented. "We played a lot of matches and have been able to maintain a pretty high level. We want to continue in this rhythm here and also at the Olympics."

Two past Olympians were successful in Gstaad’s qualifier too as Rio 2016 silver medallist Barbara Seixas of Brazil and partner Carolina Salgado downed Switzerland’s Laura Caluori and Anna Lutz 2-0 (21-13, 21-11) and three-time Olympian Vasiliki Arvaniti of Greece and partner Penny Karagkouni defeated the Ukrainian Makhno twins Inna and Iryna also in two sets (21-17, 21-16).

Arvaniti sets partner Karagkouni during their qualifier match in Gstaad

The other five women’s teams that succeed in Tuesday’s qualifier were France’s Lezana Placette/Alexia Richard, USA’s Allie Wheeler/Corinne Quiggle, Germany’s Kim Behrens/Sandra Ittlinger, Finland’s Niina Ahtiainen/Riikka Lehtonen and Spain’s Daniele Alvarez/Angela Lobato.

The men’s qualifier saw as many as five Olympians progress among the eight teams that advanced to the main draw. Three-time Olympians Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst of Austria led the group with their 2-1 (18-21, 22-20, 15-12) victory over Italians Jakob Windisch and Samuele Cottafava.

Austria’s Robin Seidl and American Casey Patterson, who both competed at the Rio 2016 Games, met in the qualifier’s final round and the European and partner Philipp Waller came out on top with a 2-0 (21-8, 21-17) triumph over Patterson and Chase Budinger.

Schalk hits during a match against a Israeli duo

Other Olympians advancing were USA’s Chaim Schalk, who played with Theo Brunner, and Russia’s Nikita Liamin, who progressed alongside Taras Myskiv. The other four teams to secure their spots in the main draw were Denmark’s Kristoffer Abell/Nicolai Hovmann, Norway’s Mathias Berntsen/Hendrik Mol, Belarus’ Aliaksandr Dziadkou/Pavel Piatrushka and Germany’s Alexander Walkenhorst/Sven Winter.

The main draw starts on Wednesday with 32 teams in each gender. The men’s final is scheduled for Saturday, July 10, while the women’s medal matches will take place on Sunday, July 11.